Looted Tiles Returned to Iran

At the end of last week it was reported in the Iranian press that "dozens of historic decorative tiles" that had been looted from Iran had been handed to officials at the Iranian Embassy in London ("Smuggled tiles to be returned to Iran", May 30, 2009). The tiles had been removed ("ripped") from the tomb of Sultan Shihab al-Din Sultan Ahmad at Dyla in northern Iran.

Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the legal adviser at the Iranian embassy in London, is quoted:

The tiles are about 600 years old. They were stolen from the tomb of Sultan Shihab al-Din Sultan Ahmad and were smuggled out of the country ... They were taken to London from Dubai to be sold in an auction ... Interpol in London confiscated the tiles after Iran presented the related documents that indicated that they belonged to Iran.

There is also a statement from the UK's Metropolitan Police("Tiles from Sultan's tomb returned to Iran", May 29, 2009):

They [sc. the tiles] were sent for auction at Bonham's Auction House, New Bond Street however experts became suspicious of their origins and alerted the Art & Antiques Unit.

The unit conducted a thorough investigation in co-operation with the Cultural Property Unit in Iran. Photographs of the tiles in situ together with photographs taken following the theft helped to positively identify them.

A collector who bought the tiles in "good faith" from a dealer in Dubai has assisted the police and has released his title claim on the objects.

There is also a comment from DS Vernon Rapley the investigating officer:

It is very satisfying to know that these valuable cultural objects will once again be displayed within the tomb from which they were so callously taken.

We are very grateful for the close co-operation of the Iranian Embassy in London and the Cultural officials who assisted our investigation in Tehran.

The diary in The Independent (June 5, 2009) also notes the tiles:

police gave back to the Iranian government hundreds of tiles, which had been removed from the ancient tomb of of Sultan Shihab al-Din Sultan Ahmad in Northern Iran, and had appeared at Bonham's auction house in London. Auctioneers had become suspicious of their provenance and handed them back.

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Presstv.ir

Roman wall-painting seized from Manhattan gallery

A second antiquity was seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Manhattan on Monday("ICE seizes a cultural artifact reported stolen in Italy almost 12 years ago", press release). The Roman fresco had been been identified by the Art Loss Register. The wall-painting had been found at Boscoreale and had then been kept in a store at Pompeii. It had been noted as stolen in June 1997.

Five other fragments stolen with it have now been recovered.

• London, unspecified gallery, press release February 2009

Image Courtesy of ICE

Corinthian krater recovered from Christie's

On Monday this week (June 1 2009) staff of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are reported to have recovered a Corinthian column-krater from Christie's in New York ("Stolen Italian artifact smuggled into the United States found at auction house", press release). The items had apparently been identified through a photographic image.

The press release notes:

The investigation into the Corinthian column krater revealed it may have been illegally introduced into the art market by Giacomo Medici and a third party at Sotheby's Auction house in 1985.

Does this mean that the krater appears in the archive of Polaroids seized in raids on the Geneva Freeport?

An item that had passed through one of Sotheby's London sales in 1985 had to be withdrawn from auction at Bonhams last October, and two other pieces that had surfaced by the same route in the same year have also been returned to Italy.

A second Corinthian column-krater has been returned to Italy from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

This announcement coincides with my observations on an Attic cup that had surfaced through a Sotheby's sale in 1984 and that is also due to be auctioned by Christie's.

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Image Courtesy of ICE.

Sotheby's 1984 sale: a re-emergence

In October 2008 Bonhams (London) had to withdraw several pieces. Among them was:

• Lot 10: Apulian hydria. Surfaced: Sotheby's London, Antiquities, May 21st, 1984, lot 384. [see list]
  

(At least three other pieces from this sale had passed through the Graham Geddes collection: lots 222 [Apulian hydria], 372 [Paestan lebes gamikos], and 408 [Apulian volute-krater].)

This incident should alert vendors to potential problems with this specific May 1984 sale given that antiquities that passed through Sotheby's (London) in the 1980s have featured regularly in the returns to Italy (and see also other pieces withdrawn from sale at Bonham's).

The due diligence process will have no doubt been doubly thorough for lot 375 from the same May 1984 auction. The Attic black-figured Band cup is now due to be offered at Christie's on June 3, 2009, lot 104. Who was the original consignor for the cup?

The cup (lot 375) subsequently passed to the Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1984, and then the Summa Galleries, Beverley Hills. It is now being sold as part of the Allen E. Paulson Living Trust.

The names of Allen Paulson and Bruce McNall of Summa Stables coincide in the horse-racing world (e.g. "A Lengthy Test for Jade Hunter's Speed", The New York Times February 21, 1988, Sunday).

Reduced sale of antiquities at Sotheby's

I normally give a summary of the two sales of antiquities at Sotheby's New York (see comments on last June's sale). This week antiquities forms part of a sale of "Old Master Paintings, European Sculpture & Antiquities" (Thursday June 4, 2009) --- and there are only 70 lots containing antiquities.

What has happened to the market? Is it a sign of the current worldwide economic crisis or are there fewer antiquities with "good provenance" around?

Is the archaeology of the Balkans under threat?

The archaeology of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is under serious threat. In 2006 it was claimed that some 1 million artefacts had been smuggled out of the country in the fifteen years since its independence in 1991. Pasko Kuzman, head of the National Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, has called for the return of the Koreschnica krater that is said to have been removed from a sixth century BCE burial mound in the south of the country. It is reported to be in the possession of an unidentified New York collector.

The piece, used for mixing water and wine, is apparently similar to a krater found at Trebinshte in the closing stages of the First World War near the (present) boundary between FYROM and Albania.

The mound at Koreschnica covered an underground burial chamber buried under 3.8 m of rocks and rubble. The burial was looted during the 1990s. Finds are said to have included some 18 Illyrian bronze helmets, and three bronze warriors. The krater had been used to contain the cremated remains of the person buried here.

Elsewhere in the Balkans a hoard of Byzantine silver is said to have been found at Pazardzhik in Bulgaria during the 1990s. Pieces from it were acquired by several museums in Greece.

The scale of the problem in Bulgaria is massive. A report in 2007 suggested that some 16,000 archaeological pieces had been seized from looters in the preceding 10 month period.

Museums, private collectors, auction houses, dealers and archaeologists need to work together to put a stop to this large-scale destruction of the archaeological heritage of this part of Europe.

Operation Phoenix: Ali Aboutaam "urges" others to repatriate antiquities

On May 19 it was reported that an unnamed Geneva dealer had returned 251 antiquities worth some €2 million (see earlier comments). My press release, "Looting Matters: Why Is Switzerland Featured so Frequently in the Return of Antiquities?", PR Newswire May 29, 2009 Friday 12:01 PM GMT subsequently noted:

"In May 2009 251 antiquities worth around 2 million Euros (US $2.8 million) were returned to Italy from a Geneva-based gallery."

One hour later another release appeared, "Phoenix Ancient Art Voluntarily Repatriates 251 Antiquities to Italy Worth $2.7 Million", PR Newswire May 29, 2009 Friday 1:00 PM GMT.

Phoenix Ancient Art, the world's leading dealer in rare treasures from ancient Western civilizations, announced today that it has voluntarily repatriated 251 antiquities valued at $2.7 Million (EU 2Million) to the State of Italy.

Why did it take ten days for Phoenix Ancient Art to make this statement? What prompted this latest move?

Ali Aboutaam was quoted in the release:

"We returned these ancient artifacts in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration with the international art world, and to demonstrate Phoenix's commitment to the preservation and repatriation of national treasures to their host countries ... We have, amicably settled the matter with the Italian authorities, and urge others in the art world to follow suit and also the lead of some of the world's great museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in repatriating antiquities whose provenance may be in doubt."

The press release suggests that the pieces were removed from archaeological contexts in Etruria and Southern Italy during the 1980s. It stress such looting was "unbeknownst to Phoenix"; in other words the pieces had been acquired in "good faith".

C. Michael Hedqvist, who is director of the Geneva gallery of Phoenix Ancient Art, is also quoted:

"To ensure the provenance of our items, we spend much of our time verifying an art work's pedigree. In our due diligence process we ask each seller of artwork for proof of identity, as well as for documents pertaining to how long the piece has been in circulation... The returned items were acquired by Phoenix a long time ago, without knowing of their doubtful provenance. Even though a court in Geneva in 2007 rejected the Italian claim and awarded title of the antiquities to Phoenix, proving that we were not at fault, we chose to return the disputed items to the Italian State."

Ali and Hicham Aboutaam have yet to explain their link with an antiquity returned from Princeton to Italy.

Aboutaam's urge that other institutions should "follow suit" and repatriate "antiquities whose provenance may be in doubt" will cause discomfort for two particular institutions:

• The St Louis Art Gallery: the Egyptian mummy mask
  
• The Cleveland Museum of Art: the Cleveland Apollo

Will these two museums be returning these two acquisitions in the near future?