Roman Sarcophagus Seized

source: ICE

It is being reported that a Roman sarcophagus has been seized in a store in Queens (Tom Mashberg, "Authorities to Seize a Roman Statue in Queens That They Say Was Stolen", New York Times February 27, 2014; ICE Press release). The sarcophagus was valued at $4 million and was due to be put on display by Phoenix Ancient Art. It appears that it was identified from the photographic archive seized from Gianfranco Becchina.

Mashberg quotes the lawyer for Phoenix Ancient Art:

Henry J. Bergman, a lawyer for Phoenix, said the gallery did not own the statue and had “only exhibited it on behalf of a client,” whom he declined to identify “on grounds of confidentiality.” Mr. Bergman said Phoenix had not played a role in shipping, importing or storing the item.

Who is the anonymous owner?

It appears that the sarcophagus was moved by Becchina to his gallery in Switzerland in 1981 and then displayed at an unnamed Swiss museum between late 1982 and 1983.

Comments

The scale of the returns to Italy

I have been busy working on an overview, "Returning Archaeological Objects to Italy". The scale of the returns to Italy from North American collections and galleries is staggering: in excess of 350 objects. This is clearly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the material that has surfaced on the market without a history that can be traced back to the period before 1970.

I will provide more information in due course, but the researcher is a reminder that we need to take due diligence seriously when it comes to making acquisitions.

Stele returns to Greece

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has announced (Saturday 8 September 2018) that a stele that had been due to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in June 2017 has been returned to Greece (Friday 7 September 2018). The identification had been made by Cambridge-based forensic archaeologist Dr Christos Tsirogiannis.

It appeared that the stele had been supplied with a falsified history as its presence with Becchina until 1990 contradicted the published sale catalogue entry. It then moved into the hands of George Ortiz.

A year ago it was suggested that Sotheby's should contact the Greek authorities. Those negotiations appear to have concluded successfully.

The 4th century BC stele fragment, with the personal name, Hestiaios, will be displayed in the Epigraphic Museum in Athens. It appears to have come from a cemetery in Attica.

"Beating sites to death"

Policy decisions for protecting archaeological sites need to be informed by carefully argued positions based on data. Dr Sam Hardy has produced an important study, “Metal detecting for cultural objects until ‘there is nothing left’: The potential and limits of digital data, netnographic data and market data for analysis”. Arts 7, 3 (2018) [online]. This builds on Hardy's earlier research.

Readers should note Hardy's conclusion about his findings: "they corroborate the detecting community’s own perception that they are ‘beat[ing these sites] to death’".

Pieterjan Deckers, Andres Dobat, Natasha Ferguson, Stijn Heeren, Michael Lewis, and Suzie Thomas may wish to reflect on whether or not their own position is endangering the finite archaeological record.

Abstract
This methodological study assesses the potential for automatically generated data, netnographic data and market data on metal-detecting to advance cultural property criminology. The method comprises the analysi…

Looting Matters

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