In response to the seemingly imminent destruction of burial mounds in Bahrain, Gillian Abbas wrote a letter to the Gulf Daily News addressing the essential question, "Why should we care?" She writes:
"Any artefacts or intact burial mounds, no matter how small or insignificant, in their original background, offer us insight into the way our ancestors lived, their societies and their environments.
They complete our view of ancient life and enrich our understanding on many levels and as such, these burial sites and antiquities embrace an essential part of the Gulf and our global cultural heritage.
And why should we care about culture and antiquities?
Simply because the physical fabric of the past is fundamental to the moral and spiritual foundation of our present and future."
This editorial echoes SAFE's own Why should we care? segment and offers additional insight about why we must safeguard information that only antiquities and ancient sites can tell us about our past.
The following review of The Lost Chalice: The Epic Hunt for a Priceless Masterpiece by Vernon Silver is written by Andrew Vasicek, SAFE Volunteer.
The book's cover promises a thrilling and true story surrounding the shady deals of the underground. However, the author only partly delivers on this promise. The Lost Chalice follows the history of several key players in the drama that surrounded one of the more famous pieces of ancient craftsmanship to be discovered in recent times. This piece is none other than a spectacular red-figure Attic krater (something like a broad vase) created by a preeminent Greek painter and potter by the name of Euphronios. The book provides an admirable level of information about the history of this and other related works, and the methods by which they were created. Silver does not bore with too much detail, but suceeds in making his descriptions of the works, their subject matter, and the period in which they were created interesting and helpful.
Unfortunately, once the story began to dive deep into the complex world of tomb raiding, it also began to become less clear. To some degree this effect may simply be due to the reviewer's relative lack of experience with the world of antiquities. However, the convoluted relationships between tomb raiders, art dealers, collectors, and museum staff often remained just so. It was also sometimes difficult to keep track of which artifact was being followed and described at a given moment due to the fact that the story followed additional ancient works (such as the chalice of the title, also referred to as a "kylix"), some made by Euphronios and some by others, but all of which (to a novice) sometimes seem very similar. All of this added to the mystery surrounding the pieces and the process, but it also sadly made the action somewhat difficult to keep straight at times.
Even so, Silver provides stunning amounts of detail, sometimes even for items quite unrelated to the plotline. This attention to specifics effectively put the reader in the moment, and demonstrated the author's dedication to uncovering all the information he possibly could about the pieces and the players (both reputable and less so) involved in the artifact deals.
This is the book's true focus: on the winding and sometimes mysterious path of Euphronios' priceless work(s). The krater was unearthed in the 1970s in Italy, after about 2,400 years of undisturbed rest. From there it began its new life in the underground network of tomb raiders and art dealers. Kept often in hiding, smuggled into other countries, bought and sold, and eventually prominently displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the piece was eventually returned to Italy in 2008 under a landmark arrangement that helped set the stage for more judicious treatment of ancient artifacts. This unprecedented event was forcibly caused by the dogged determination of a few groups of investigators and officials (who themselves were not always spotless in behavior). This relatively new development will hopefully further decrease the incentive to conduct illegal digs that disrupt the ability of researchers to fully grasp the meaning and importance of historical finds.
It is here, that the story could have done more than simply create an entertaining crime drama. While noting the importance of "proper" archaeology to uncovering critical details about archaeological finds, the style of the book causes this to feel like mere lip service to the idea. Silver generally appears to be more interested in telling a thrilling adventure story that surrounds the acquisition of artifacts than anything else. Indeed, in many instances throughout the book, one may find oneself "rooting" for the underworld characters - those people robbing the world of the opportunity to fully appreciate the heritage and knowledge that might be found in an archaeological site.
The police and other representatives of "the law" come off as the oppressors in many instances (or even simply co-conspirators who turn a blind eye). Even the mediocre application of these laws intended to prevent looting is portrayed as more of an impediment to be overcome, than a guide for the proper course of action. Silver does note that most countries have had laws respecting the discovery of ancient artifacts, but that until recent decades these were only inconsistenly enforced, and with moderate success. The adventure surrounding the "lost chalice" and it's relatives may shed additional light upon the problems that are associated with tomb raiding and illicit artifact dealing, but the message certainly could have been more strongly conveyed.
The people associated with the clearly illegal elements of the story were not necessarily portrayed in a positive light, but they did often make sympathetic characters (particularly the principal raider - Giacomo Medici). Silver did leave one with the feeling that the times have changed, and that the pool for illicit deals is drying up. Many (if not most) of the items discussed in The Lost Chalice have, in fact, been repatriated to their countries of discovery, or are still the subject of legal battles and negotiations to do so. In that way, perhaps this story will continue to help spur awareness of these issues and encourage people to think twice about engaging in the purchase of items with questionable provenance. Unfortunately for the artifacts that have already been the subject of looting, there is no way of knowing what information has been forever lost as a result.
(Note: Medici has been sentenced to 10 years in jail with a $14 million fine. Other players on trial still await final verdicts.)
From Lamia al-Gailani Wehr, via the Iraqcrisis listhost:
SBAH and the Iraq Museum were victims to the bombing of the Foreign Ministry last week. Many of the glass windows were broken, part of the roof of the children’s nursery collapsed, fortunately there was no fatality, just bruises and minor injuries. One of the accounts was at the Ministry of Finance when it was also bombed, he was injured and taken to hospital. I understand some of the exhibited antiquities in the the Museum were also damaged. I hope they have already been photographed.
Worrying issue, I heard that most of the staff ran away. Was there any emergency plan to deal with this kind of situation, such as the closure of all the doors, particularly the ones leading to the Museum and the storerooms? Apart from the police guards, is there a team whose duty to take charge whenever the Museum is under threat?
Prof. al-Gailaini Wehr raises a very important question, one that it is to be hoped will be asked as well by all those who wish to help the Iraqi government do what it can to secure the museum for a future that may well involve more bombings and even, god forbid, a breakdown of civil order on a much larger scale. Until now, the State Department has blithely pursued a Pollyannish policy that has ignored repeated warnings by archaeologists that it was too dangerous to reopen the museum. Instead of focusing on security for the museum (or archaeological sites for that matter), we have acceded to the Maliki government's desires to use it for propaganda purposes as a symbol that things are returning to normal. As part of that fantasy, US money has been plowed into site assessments, sustainable tourism planning, and training for archaeologists -- all good ideas but surely secondary in importance to the need for far better protection of Iraq's cultural heritage against looting and bombing. If the report of damage to exhibited artifacts is true, our negligence has once again borne bitter fruit, albeit on a much smaller scale than the looting of the museum and archaeological sites in the 2003-2007 period.
Speaking recently about the State Department's involvement in a site assessment of the ancient city of Ashur, a Public Diplomacy Officer remarked,
As the U.S. forces look toward our draw down out of the country, this is a great potential legacy that we can leave behind; showing that we took proper care of the ancient sites and history of the Iraqi people. When the security situation arrives at the point when there is an opportunity for wide-spread tourism, our good stewardship of these sites will pay off because we will have met the immediate needs to preserve these sites now.
The danger is that if we do not recognize that taking proper care means worrying about security first and foremost, the legacy that we leave behind will be of a country whose heritage remains inexcusably vulnerable.Let us hope that we learn from it and refocus our cultural policy in Iraq.
A while back I called attention to the appeal by the Bulgarian Archaeological Association for funds to protect and preserve Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria which - like so many sites in Bulgaria - is being targeted by treasure hunters and destroyed.
Today I received an email which appears to have been sent out to all of those who made a donation to the preservation effort and which gave a brief report on the way some of the donations are being used:
[The] Bulgarian Archaeological Association is glad to inform you that thanks to your financial support a short term archaeological expedition at the territory of Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria was realized. Several architectural and epigraphical monuments were discovered and saved for the archaeological science. Please follow the link to find our [report]: http://www.archaeology.archbg.net/c_ratiaria.html
While it is great that several individuals and groups donated to the preservation efforts, more is needed and I would urge anyone who can and who has an interest in preserving Bulgaria's heritage to sign the petition and donate
In the SAFE feature article "Why coins matter" numismatist Nathan Elkins wrote "Ancient coins are among the most widely collected and demanded objects among American collectors of antiquities." "We cannot think that ancient coins are less significant than Greek vases—when looted, both are forever divorced from their historical and archaeological contexts and irrecoverable information is lost when the site from which they came is vandalized." Elkins continued. SAFE agrees.
We are therefore pleased to announce "Coin Matters" as the latest addition to our growing Resources section. Please assist us in keeping our resources fresh and current. We welcome any additional new and relevant links you may have, both on-line and off-line, and appreciate your contribution to our shared interest in increasing the public's knowledge on cultural heritage issues. To submit your resources and keep this site growing please email resources@savingantiquities.org.
The assiduous Laurie Rush has been building support for cultural heritage protection methodically for several years now through the Department of Defense's Defense Legacy Resource Management Program. Now these longterm efforts have led to the first-ever onsite cultural training program for U.S. military personnel in the Middle East. The U.S. Central Command had established a working group that succeeded in persuading Dr. Zahi Hawass and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities to provide free access and a guide for the tour of the ancient pyramid complex of Saqqara.
The training aimed at heightening the awareness by military planners of the strategic importance of recognizing ancient remains in host nation landscapes, of the need to respect and avoid damage to sites and artifacts, and of the ways in which tourism to archaeological sites can yield economic benefits to local populations. Dr Joris Kila, who as a member of the Dutch military was one of the first civil-affairs officers to go into Iraq after the invasion, served as international advisor -- a good sign in itself, since it indicates that the lesson has been learned from Iraq that other countries can and should provide cultural heritage protection expertise that the U.S. military lacks. Equally important, Kila and other trainers emphasized the importance of multinational involvement in cultural property protection efforts, given the sensitivity of host countries towards what is after all their own patrimony.
More trainings are planned for the future. And the Defese Department has also just held a conference on "Sustaining Military Readiness" that included a panel on Cultural Heritage Protection During Armed Conflict:
Looting at the Iraq National Museum brought the issue of cultural property protection onto the world stage. Three of the world's most experienced cultural property experts will discuss the issue from the perspectives of the UK, Netherlands, and Austrian Ministries of Defense. Topics will include planning for conflict, the British Museum project in Basra, Dutch response to looting in Baghdad, and creation of an institute for research in Vienna to address these issues. Confirmed speakers include Karl Von Habsburg-Lothringen, Dr. Peter Stone and LTC Dr. Joris D. Kila.
All this is a big step forward. It is not clear from the information received so far whether this training can be easily translated into war zones like Afghanistan, or whether it includes practical advice on how the military might work jointly with host country antiquities officials or with locals to secure and protect sites. But it is still a very positive development.
This WSJ article sheds light on the remarkable history of the Bactrian Gold—an Afghan cache once feared to be lost, but actually kept hidden until a few years ago in a presidential palace vault. A collection of this gold is now on display at the Met as part of the "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures of the National Museum, Kabul" exhibit. You see the Bactrian hoard and hear the fascinating back-stories of other objects from Kabul if you sign up for a SAFE Tour with Nadia Tarzi at the Met this weekend. Friday is selling out fast, but there still lots of room on the Saturday morning tour!
At the center of Margaret M. Miles’ latest book are two men: corrupt Roman magistrate of Sicily, Gaius Verres, and the lawyer who prosecuted him, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Art as Plunder: The Ancient Origins of Debate about Cultural Property unfurls from the matters at stake in their famous legal battle of the first century BCE.
While Rome was preoccupied with Spartacus’ slave revolt, Gaius Verres wreaked havoc on the Sicilian people as their governor from 73 to 70 BCE. During that extended post Verres exercised indulgent abuse of power; he extorted money from the locals and killed innocent people, but, according to Miles, what figured most important in Cicero’s prosecution was the governor’s sacrilegious and indecorous theft of art.
Using eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence, Cicero presented the Roman jury with horrifying episodes of Verres’ bad behavior. Maybe the most poignant of these incidents happened in Sicilian city of Tyndaris where Verres coveted after a statue of Mercury that the townspeople were keen to hold on to—it had historical importance and had been once plundered during wartime but since repatriated. As punishment for his refusal to surrender the statue, the distinguished local magistrate, Sopater, was stripped naked in freezing rain and tied to a bronze equestrian statue in the city’s center until the local senate agreed to hand over their Mercury.
Verres violated integral codes of Roman behavior. He disregarded rules of hospitality in a foreign land, and he pillaged sanctuaries, private homes, and public places during peacetime. Worse, Verres did not even offer his spoils to the gods or for public benefit; rather, the plunder decorated his private atrium in Rome. To be sure, Verres was officially charged with extortion of forty million sesterces from the Sicilians—not with stealing art. But the accounts in Cicero’s Verrines that best illuminate the governor’s greed, decadence, and aggression are those that depict his injudicious removal of cultural property for his personal use.
Miles does an excellent job of contextualizing these violations. In her first chapter she exhaustively details ancient precedents for plunder with examples ranging from the Elamite confiscation of the Stele of Naram-Sin in the second millennium BCE to the unparalleled repatriation of Sicilian art by Scipio Aemilianus in the second century BCE. In her second chapter, her focus narrows and she reconstructs the specific historic moment in which Verres’ trial took place.
If Cicero’s picture of Verres looks familiar, it should. As Miles tells us in her last chapter, the Verrines were often cited and evoked as parallel arguments in Neoclassical legal cases like Edmund Burke’s prosecution of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India from 1773-1784. Lord Byron also used the text in his denunciation of Lord Elgin’s removal of antiquities and architectural elements from the Acropolis.
Perhaps the most compelling resurrection of Cicero’s Verrines took place after the Napoleonic Wars with the Duke of Wellington’s order that France must give back all of the art it plundered to its rightful nation of origin. Miles’ portrait of the Duke is the culmination of the “humane general” theme that runs throughout her book in rare passages of history. In these episodes, rulers are shown acting outside the typical conventions of war, behaving magnanimously, and thinking insightfully about the future of foreign relations and cultural heritage.
The scope of Art as Plunder is vast and interdisciplinary; thus it will be an invaluable resource to a number of audiences including cultural property advocates, museum curators, soldiers, ancient historians, Neoclassical historians, and anyone with an interest in art history, aesthetics, and military history. Its academic quality—heavy footnotes and an extensive bibliography—should not scare away readers with a casual interest in the subject. Miles’ language is intelligent but completely lucid. The only thing really keeping Art as Plunder away from a popular audience right now is the cost. (The list price is $90.00).
By providing a comprehensive picture of ancient views about plunder, Miles propels her reader into the ancient mind. She then challenges her audience to take that knowledge and try to make sense of pillages, legal developments, and battles of repatriation that have taken place in the past few centuries and are still taking place today. The author’s aim is not to mine the historical record for evidence supporting the protection and repatriation of cultural property—the story she has to tell is much more nuanced and complicated than that. However, Miles does make it clear that those persons in line with the Verrine model often end up on the wrong side of history. Art as Plunder should warn the most ravenous of collectors to start thinking about posterity.
There seems to be a concern that the new AAMD policy on acquiring antiquities is having an impact on collectors. For more discussion see Looting Matters.
The gold vessel from Ur that was seized from a German auction house in 2005 has been handed over to German authorities after residing in the care of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz where it was analyzed by an expert in Mesopotamian metalwork, Michael Müller-Karpe. It is now feared that the object may be allowed to go auction since the antiquities laws in Germany are rather lax, one of the reasons the reasons that Germany is an important transit market for recently surfaced antiquities.
As a follow up to this story, DW-TV has posted an interesting online video broadcast (31 July 2009) discussing the gold vessel and role that Germany plays in the international trade.
On May 27th the New York Times ran an article on the demolition of the historic city of Kashgar. Only two days later SAFECORNER posted an editorial on Kashgar’s importance as a historical cultural site. It was at this point that I was introduced to the situation as a SAFE intern. Back then I didn’t know anything about Kashgar, or Chinese archaeology. Yet somehow this crisis, which has only exploded since that first article, has become a pet project of mine and goes to show how a cultural disaster like Kashgar can have an incredible pull on anyone who takes the time to get involved.
I started my adventure on Facebook. To raise awareness for the cause and to rally supporters behind SAFE’s message I created a Facebook Cause page which I named “Save Kashgar ”. I loaded it with whatever information I had available to me at the time, which was only a few articles and the information I had gained from the SAFECORNER editorial. Later I was able to set up a Flickr group to create a photo documentation of the Old City. I also set up a petition appealing to the Chinese Cultural Minister to save what remained of the cultural heritage of this city. However, it quickly became apparent to me that this was so much more than a demolition of a city. It was the destruction of the Uyghur culture. A culture that had existed for hundreds of years in this location was being wiped out.
In an effort to find recruits to my newly formed cause page I reached out to the Uyghur and Archaeology related groups on Facebook. It was at this moment when I discovered I was not alone in this fight. I went to every group I could think of to let them know about what I was doing, but everywhere I went I found links to other Kashgar related Facebook pages. Groups such as “Save Kashgar, Xinjiang, China from Demolition!” and “Saving Kashgar” encouraged followers to raise their voices against the destruction. The creator of “Save Kashgar, Xinjiang, China from Demolition!,” Nikhat Rasheed, is responsible for a YouTube video further demonstrating the importance of Kashgar to the Uyghurs and the world. Her group has also sponsored an event in Toronto, Canada to show solidarity with the Uyghur people. On July 1, 2009, a group of Uyghurs performed a traditional dance in celebration of Canada Day. Members of this Facebook group attended, furthering the public display of unity with the Uyghur cause. Ms. Rasheed has also written a wildly popular petition that has raised almost 7,000 signatures in a short period of time. Another Facebook Cause page “Save Kashgar!,” created by dedicated advocate Miriam J. Woods, has generated a petition that has already received over 1,000 signatures. This petition asks President Obama and Congress to appeal to the Chinese government to cease the demolition. Her cause page is raising money for the Uyghur American Association/Uyghur Human Rights Project.
It was vital to me to ensure that these various efforts would not be in competition with each other, but work together to most effectively spread the word. Over the past months I got in contact with both Ms. Rasheed and Ms. Woods, both of whom are dedicated and tireless in their fight to save Kashgar and the Uyghur people. They both became a source of encouragement for me with kind words like “I'm really glad that there are people like you who are working so hard to try to save cultural and historical sites like Kashgar.” It was around the same time I contacted the UAA/UHRP. These groups instantly responded to my plea for more information and I was granted the privilege of a phone conversation with Amy Reger and Henryk Szadziewski from the UHRP. These two sat down with me for an hour or more telling me all about Kashgar and the Chinese government’s plans to culturally assimilate and economically segregate the Uyghur people because they are “perceived as a threat”. They impressed upon me how deeply emotional the demolition of Kashgar as a symbol of destroyed identity was affecting the Uyghur people and their supporters.
This conversation was a turning point for me in my journey. Before I saw the issue from my point of view as an archaeologist, but after these varied and passionate communications I saw that this was a human crisis. What has amazed me most over these past two months has been the number of people reaching out to me, telling me their story, letting me know that Kashgar was important to them too. Perhaps the most evocative message I received was from man and his wife. They could not join the cause page or sign the petition because their actions were being monitored and it could have affected their visa status, but they wanted to reach out to a fellow advocate. Here I was, a California girl who has never been anywhere near China, communicating and reaching out to someone who had experienced Kashgar first hand. It was a wonderful feeling.
Of course, the Kashgar cause has grown far and beyond any of my actions on Facebook, especially in response to the riots in Urumchi. Ms. Rasheed created the web site http://www.savekashgar.com/ to better document the Kashgar situation. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has sent a letter to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and ICOMOS China expressing their grave concern over the situation. People like Marc Forster, the filmmaker responsible for films such as “Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland” and “Quantum of Solace” are rallying behind the cause. For his movie “The Kite Runner” he lived in a few months in Kashgar, where parts of the movie were filmed. In a press release from the Uyghur American Association Forster said, “I am saddened to know that their homes, their faith and their heritage is being taken away from them and I urge everyone to help save Old Town."
Meanwhile, SAFE has become an outspoken advocate for the survival of this ancient city. Respected signatories such as Colin Renfrew, Heritage Watch, the UAA/UHRP and many others joined with SAFE to sign the “Statement of Concern and Appeal for International Cooperation To Save Ancient Kashgar”. This letter implored Mr. Francesco Bandarin, the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, to include Kashgar on the World Heritage List and to persuade the Chinese authorities to preserve Kashgar and perform salvage archaeology. The letter was an important step in international support to assist in the survival of this city.
Kashgar has evoked an impassioned and ever-growing response, in me and many others. More and more people from around the world are reaching out and speaking out against this demolition and the destruction of a culture. Uyghur residents, as well as international architects, students and archaeologists, have banded together to create a united force dedicated to spreading the word. Public awareness in on the rise and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
As for me, my heart goes out the Uyghurs who are losing the heart of their civilization. I will continue to support in the best way I can. My cause page is closing in on 700 members and it is my hope that I can continue to reach these people and keep them united in this work against this cultural and human crime.
Which of the Top Ten SAFECORNER Posts of 2011 is your favorite?
Welcome to SAFECORNER
This is the online community of the non-profit organization SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone, where dialogs begin, ideas exchange, and concrete solutions emerge concerning looting and the illicit antiquities trade. Contributors to SAFECORNER are members of the SAFE community and other experts and opinion leaders in the field of cultural heritage protection. If you would like to add a relevant comment, please send it to safecorner@savingantiquities.org. As a courtesy to our readers please avoid repetitions and observe our usage terms listed at the bottom of this page. We welcome your comments and responses.
In response to the seemingly imminent destruction of burial mounds in Bahrain, Gillian Abbas wrote a letter to the Gulf Daily News addressing the essential question, "Why should we care?" She writes:
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