Charges against New York art dealer Nancy Wiener

ARCA has provided a text-base version of the charges against New York dealer Nancy Wiener [see here].
There are some points to note:

• apparent falsification of the collecting history ("provenance") of an object
• apparent consigning genuine objects with other works to provide cover when passing through customs
• weakness in the policy for accepting lots by a major New York auction house
• the apparent changing of a stated collecting history by the same major New York auction house

We are particularly interested in co-conspirator #6:

Co-Conspirator #6 and his father are suppliers of illicit cultural property from primarily Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to several recorded conversations, Co-Conspirator #6 has been shipping large quantities of newly dug-up, stolen antiquities from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Thailand, often via Hong Kong, and then to dealers from around the world for more than a decade.

We note:

Co-Conspirator #6, who in the mid-1980s was a child living in Pakistan and England

Antiquities and Jihadists

Earlier this month I drew attention to the speech of Giuseppe Proietti linking Mohamed Atta to the attempt to sell antiquities in Germany. My prompt had been the Fall number of the Journal of Art Crime.

I now see that the February number of the Art Newspaper has also taken up the story (Cristina Ruiz, "9/11 hijacker attempted to sell Afghan loot: Mohammed Atta offered artefacts to German archaeologist", January 27, 2010). Ruiz gives credit to the Journal of Art Crime.

If this story is accurate, based apparently on a security report from the German intelligence services, then there are more serious issues at stake. Archaeologists have been raising the issue of the looting on archaeological sites to provide material for the market. And there have been concerns about the way that archaeological material has been used to fund organised crime (or, in this case, terrorism).

What if those buying looted antiquities derived from Afghanistan inadvertently (or "in good faith") helped to fund the attacks on the Twin Towers? It makes the provocative comments of a senior North American academic, quoted in an interview in the New York Times (Robin Pogrebin, "$200 Million Gift Prompts a Debate Over Antiquities ", April 1, 2006), seem more than inappropriate. In talking about archaeologists who hold an ethical position, the archaeology professor is reported to have said:

''The jihadists, as I would call them now -- who think that to even publish anywhere an item that doesn't have a provenance is forbidden -- this is an utterly ridiculous position,'' he continued. ''If you took that position, we wouldn't know anything about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those were found by Bedouin in caves beside the Dead Sea. None of them were found by archaeologists. If you followed the purists, you would totally ignore it.''

I have commented before on one of the responses to this debate.

Imagine a collector of antiquities justifying an acquisition in these (fictitious) terms: "This sculpture may have been sold by jihadists who needed money to fight NATO forces in Afghanistan".

Cairo Conference: The Return of Cultural Property

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced that it will be hosting a conference in April to discuss the return of antiquities. The conference will be seeking to resolve issues over cultural property that the home countries consider to be "stolen".

There will be a discussion of legal solutions though the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property is an internationally recognised benchamark. No doubt some countries will be seeking the return of obects acquired well before 1970.

The press release specifically cites Egypt's desire to reclaim the Rosetta Stone and the head of Nefertiti.

Among the coutrnies due to attend are Greece, Mexico, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and China.

Other countries should also be represented. Bulgaria has a sigificant claim on a hoard of Byzantine silver, and FYROM (the Republic of Macedonia) is seeking the return of an archaic krater from a North American private collection.

Antiquities and terrorism

Does Looting Matter? I was very struck by reading Judith Harris, 'Financing Terror', The Journal of Art Crime 1, 2 (Fall 2009) 89 [subscription details]. She comments on a speech made by Giuseppe Proietti of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Proietti made the point, “the trade in archaeological artifacts in Iraq and Afghanistan is second in volume only to the drug traffic.”

What is more striking is the claim,

[Proietti] also said that Mohammed Atta, who headed the suicide command that destroyed the Twin Towers on September 11, 2002, had two years previously contacted an archaeologist at the historic University of Göttingen in Germany with an offer to sell looted archaeological artifacts from Afghanistan. According to the unidentified archaeologist, who declined the offer, the money was to finance Atta’s flying lessons in the U.S., said Proietti.

I see the story was reported in Germany ("Kunst als Terrorfinanzierung?", Der Spiegel 18. Juli 2005).

Die Hamburger Todespiloten haben nach neuen Erkenntnissen des Bundeskriminalamts (BKA) möglicherweise versucht, die Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 durch illegalen Kunsthandel zu finanzieren.

Der Kopf der Gruppe, der Ägypter Mohammed Atta, sprach 2000 oder 2001 die Göttinger Professorin Brigitte G. an und offerierte "antike afghanische Kunst mit dem Ziel der Weitervermittlung". "Er wollte wissen, wo man Antiquitäten vermarkten kann", erinnert sich die Wissenschaftlerin. Dabei habe Atta, so das BKA, am Rande als Begründung möglicherweise auch geäußert, er brauche das Geld, um den Ankauf eines Flugzeugs zu finanzieren. Der Kontakt nach Göttingen war über die Technische Universität Harburg vermittelt worden, an der Atta damals studierte. Weil die Professorin ihn auf das Auktionshaus Sotheby's verwies, kam kein Geschäft zustande. Atta war Anfang 2000 aus den Qaida-Ausbildungslagern in Afghanistan zurück nach Deutschland gekommen, um die Anschläge auf die USA vorzubereiten.

Who was buying such antiquities in the period before 2001?

Such a report should make museums, collectors and antiquities dealers think twice before they buy recently-surfaced antiquities.

Kabul, the collector and ... Wallander

For those who enjoy a crime theme I recommend the latest Wallander episode, The Photographer, available (at least here in the UK) on the BBC iPlayer. Wallander is a Swedish detective created by Henning Mankell.

I cannot say more about the episode as it would spoil it. Readers of 'Looting Matters' will see why it is of interest.

Artbeat: Antiquities from Afghanistan in London

Special Constables from "Artbeat" will be visiting auction houses, dealers, galleries and museums in London to alert them to the issue of stolen antiquities from Afghanistan ("Police to clamp down on trade in looted Afghan art", Daily Telegraph, October 21, 2008). This is part of the Metropolitan Police's Operation Syenite. The report concluced:

Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley from the Met's Art and Antiques Unit added: "The message is clear, do not purchase any Afghan antiquities without clear title and established provenance."

Indeed it could be well said: do not purchase or handle any antiquities without clear title and established provenance.