China Tries to Stop Auction

From People's Daily Online Chinese lawyers try to stop Christie's sale of stolen relics 21:48, February 10, 2009 A team of 81 Chinese lawyers has written to auction giant Christie's in an effort to stop the sale of two bronze relics, which were looted from an old Beijing palace. The two artifacts, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, will be auctioned by Christie's in Paris from Feb. 23 to 25. They were expected to fetch 8 million to 10 million euros (about 10.4 to 13 million U.S. dollars) each. "We've sent a letter to Christie's representative in China through e-mail," Liu Yang, one of the lawyers working on the case, told Xinhua. The letter will also be sent to Christie's headquarters by a liaison person in France, he said. Liu said they hope Christie's could give a second thought to the sale of the Chinese relics, withdraw them from the auction and persuade the owner of the stolen artifacts to return them to China. The two bronze head sculptures were housed in Yuanmingyuan, Beijing's Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. The rabbit and rat head sculptures currently belong to the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and were put up for auction by Pierre Berge. Liu said his team had also sent a letter to Pierre Berge, asking him not to auction the relics and return them to China. He said his team would sue Pierre Berge if there were no "positive feedback from them (Pierre Berge and Christie's) within a reasonable period". Christie's would be involved in the lawsuit as the third party. But he declined to say how long his team would wait for the "positive feedback". Christie's Public Relations Officer in China Chen Yan confirmed that the company's Beijing office had received the letter. Chen said the sale of all the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge collection will go for charity. All the articles, including the two Yuanmingyuan bronze sculptures, have legal documents showing that they are possessed by their keepers legally, she said. "Therefore, the auction will go on as scheduled," she said in an e-mail to Xinhua. Chen said Christie's understands that the auction of the two bronze sculptures is "sensitive" in China and hopes to work with other parties to find a "satisfactory" solution. China and France signed the 1995 Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which stipulated that any cultural object looted or lost because of reasons of war should be returned without any limitation of time span. Liu refuted Chen's comments and said Pierre Berge does not have legal ownership of the two sculptures. He said according to the principle of the Civil Law System, the right of the owner of an article will not exceed the right of the article's previous owner. "The fact that the sculptures were stolen from China and illegally possessed by some people previously, means that the ownership of their current keeper is not legal," he said. Christie's carried a detailed introduction of the two bronzes on its website, saying that the two formed part of the zodiacal clepsydra that decorated the Calm Sea Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795). "Constructed between 1756 and 1759 under the supervision of the famous Jesuit priest Giuseppe Castiglione, the heads are characterized by a distinctly western style," Mathilde Courteault, head of the company's Asian Department, was quoted by the website as saying. "The clepsydra comprised the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac each of which, in their turn, spouted water to mark the various hours of the day with the exception of midday, when this elaborate hydraulic mechanism triggered all of the animals simultaneously," Courteault said. Early reports said Liu and his team had had trouble finding an appropriate plaintiff to sue Christie and channeling enough money for the lawsuit. But Liu said those problems were gone as the Global Aixinjueluo Family Clan, a civil society registered in Hong Kong, has agreed to be the plaintiff. Aixinjueluo is the clan name of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. A company in Shenzhen in south China agreed to donate 400,000 yuan (58,823 U.S. dollars) to the lawyers to cover the legal cost, Liu said. He declined to release the company's name and said his team still need to sign an agreement with the company before they get the money. The action of the lawyers has gained support from many Chinese netizens, who are furious about the auction. Many netizens pasted comments on the forum of sina.com, saying that "looted relics must be returned to China for free." China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said earlier that Christie's auction of the two stolen relics is unacceptable and China will not try to buy them back. Song Xinchao, director of the museum department with the SACH, said the best way to deal with the issue was to ignore it, because some business people might use the patriotism of the Chinese people to raise bidding prices for monetary gain. The American auction house Sotheby's tried to put a bronze horse head for auction in 2007. But Macao billionaire Stanley Ho bought the relic at a price of 69.1 million Hong Kong dollars (about 9 million U.S. dollars) before the auction and donated it to the Chinese government. China's Special Fund for Rescuing Lost Cultural Relics from overseas had negotiated with the keeper of the two relics in 2003 and 2004, but were deterred by an asking price of 10 million U.S. dollars for each artifact. So far, five of the 12 bronze animal heads have already been returned to China, while the whereabouts of five others is unknown. Source:Xinhua

Egypt hands over stolen goddess to Iraq

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:57:56 GMT Egypt hands over an ancient Iraqi statue made of bronze, which was stolen from Iraq, to the country's Charge d'Affaires in Cairo. Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass, while returning the statue of an ancient goddess at a ceremony on Sunday to Abdel Hadi Ahmed, said the stolen bronze statue had been stolen from Iraq and was found as an Egyptian man was trying to smuggle it into Egypt. He said the statue was to be smuggled via the port of Nuweiba, in the Sinai Peninsula. According to SCA, the artifact, depicting a standing woman, was verified by an archaeological committee as an authentic Mesopotamian antique. Since the US war on Iraq in 2003, numerous Iraqi antiquities have been stolen out of Iraq, a country with rich cultural heritages. FTP/MMA

Ancient Sanctuary Discovered - and Robbed

The people who steal antiquities out of their context, forever depriving the rest of the world of the knowledge that the may have conveyed, are akin to the Wall Street big wigs and their ilk who, in their greed and arrogance, have destroyed the lives of countless millions of average Americans. They should be taken out, lined up against a wall, and shot - summarily. Farmer digs up ancient sanctuary in Italy 12/17/2008 10:47 PM ROME – A farmer working his land south of Rome dug up hundreds of artifacts from a 2,600-year-old sanctuary, but ran afoul of police when he tried to sell the ancient hoard, officials said Wednesday. After spotting fragments of pottery in soil dug up by the farmer, authorities searched his home last month and seized more than 500 artifacts, including perfume vials, cups and miniature vases used as votive objects. The art squad of the Carabinieri paramilitary police said the farmer was placed under investigation for allegedly trafficking in antiquities. Ancient artifacts found in Italy are considered state property, and finds must be reported to authorities. Archaeologists said they will continue to excavate the sanctuary, which dates back to the 7th-6th century B.C. and is located outside the town of Aprilia, near a small lake some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Rome. The find could expand knowledge about the area's history in pre-Roman times, when it was inhabited by Latin-speaking people under the influence of the Etruscan civilization that dominated central Italy, experts said. The pottery, some of which was imported from Greece, was offered to a deity probably connected to the lake, said Stefano De Caro, director of archaeology at the Italian Culture Ministry. "These were poor people, they gave thanks for a good harvest or they prayed that there wouldn't be a drought," De Caro said. "At the time there were no aqueducts, so the lake meant life." He speculated the treasure of tiny, delicate ceramics could have been worth hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) on the illegal antiquities market. At the news conference in Rome, the Carabinieri also presented artifacts recovered in two more operations conducted last month. During checks on an antiques shop in downtown Rome, officers found two medieval statues that had been stolen in 2007 from a home in the Italian capital, said Gen. Giovanni Nistri, the head of the art squad. Separately, experts trawling internet sites that sell antiquities came upon a man offering a mosaic from a Roman catacomb for €55,000 ($75,000) and claiming it had been donated to his family by the Vatican.After verifying the claim was false, the Carabinieri seized the 3rd-4th century A.D. mosaic from the man's home along with a jug, cups and other ancient pottery and placed him under investigation. - AP

Illegal Antiquities Traders Busted

From BBC.com:
Page last updated at 16:24 GMT, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 17:24 UK

Spain seizes 'priceless' antiques
By Steve Kingstone BBC News, Madrid

Spanish police have arrested a couple accused of illegally trafficking a "priceless" haul of artefacts from Latin America for resale in Europe.

The artefacts, which predate the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, were allegedly destined for France.

An Interpol investigation in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador led to the arrest of the Spanish man and Colombian woman.

Police searched their Spanish home and luggage to find 700 pieces allegedly looted from archaeological sites.

Items seized from the married couple included masks, pendants, paintings and ceramics.

Dozens of the smuggled items were made of gold, and all are at least 500 years old - offering a valuable insight into life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.

Colombian middlemen?
It is alleged that the historic treasures were plundered from archaeological sites - mostly in Peru and Ecuador - and then sold on to the couple through middlemen in Colombia.

The couple had just returned from a trip to the Colombian capital, Bogota.

Interpol played a co-ordinating role in the investigation.

The Spanish police seized documents and a computer which allegedly detailed a trade in cultural contraband stretching back years.

Smuggled goods are said to have been sold on in various European countries - principally France, where the couple had planned an auction later this month.

The confiscated artefacts are due to be analysed at a museum in Madrid, and will later be returned to their countries of origin. The artefacts, which predate the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, were allegedly destined for France.

An Interpol investigation in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador led to the arrest of the Spanish man and Colombian woman.

Police searched their Spanish home and luggage to find 700 pieces allegedly looted from archaeological sites.

Items seized from the married couple included masks, pendants, paintings and ceramics.

Dozens of the smuggled items were made of gold, and all are at least 500 years old - offering a valuable insight into life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.