Egyptian antiquities: "a smoke screen"?

Vernon Silver has published a reflective piece on the recent looting of antiquities and the debate about cultural property ("Looting in Egypt Arms Critics of Sending Antiquities Back Home", Bloomberg.com March 9, 2011). Has the looting of the Cairo Museum during the recent political upheavals changed the nature of the debate?

Silver has interviewed William Pearlstein who is seen as opposing claims by Egypt: "My clients will have an easier time against retention laws”. Silver also quotes Ursula Kampmann, the press officer for the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA): “The incidents during the Egyptian revolution could be taken as basis for a change of discussion ... It comes to the question, what is the best way to protect our world’s cultural heritage?”

Hawass also makes the point:

“Arguments against repatriation because of the current situation in Egypt are completely wrong ... If the police left the streets of New York City, London, or Tokyo, the criminals of those cities would smash the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, or any other museums in those cities.”

Thomas Campbell, director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, has wisely stated that the museum will return the objects relating to Tutankhamun once the political situation has stablised.

I was interviewed for the piece. Instead of rejecting claims on cultural property, museums and those involved in the antiquities market need to be conducting more thorough due diligence checks. Will members of the IADAA ensure that they have full collecting histories of all Egyptian material that they handle? Will the Barcelona Galerista return the material from Saqqara? Will the St Louis Art Museum (SLAM) produce the full authenticated documention relating to the mummy mask that it acquired?

Why does this matter? If we believe in Cosmopolitanism, like Kwame Anthony Appiah and James Cuno, these objects belong to world culture. They are our shared heritage.

Zahi Hawass Resigns: Statement

Zahi Hawass has made a full statement about his resignation. He specifically states why he has chosen this moment to resign:

I am leaving because of a variety of important reasons. The first reason is that, during the Revolution of January 25th, the Egyptian Army protected our heritage sites and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, in the last 10 days the army has left these posts because it has other tasks to do. The group now in charge of the protection of these sites is the Tourist Police, but there are no Tourist Police to do this either. Therefore, what happens? Egyptian criminals, thieves (you know, in every revolution bad people always appear…), have begun to destroy tombs. They damaged the tomb of Hetep-ka at Saqqara, the tomb of Petah-Shepses at Abu Sir and the tomb of a person called Em-pi at Giza. They attacked a storage magazine at Saqqara and we do not yet know how many artifacts are missing; they opened two storage magazines at Giza; one tomb dated to the 19th Dynasty, the only one in the Delta in fact, was damaged at Ismaïlia; and a store at El-Qantara East has been broken into and looted for antiquities. People have begun to build houses and to excavate at night, everywhere, putting heritage sites all over the country at risk. I had to write a report and I sent it to the Director of UNESCO. That is why at the meeting of the Egyptian cabinet yesterday I had my speech prepared already and I said: “I cannot stay in Egypt and see antiquities being stolen when I cannot do anything to stop it!” This situation is not for me! I have always fought to return stolen artifacts to Egypt. I did fight Ahmed Ezz as well, the man in the Parliament, who was the most powerful man, because he wanted to allow antiquities to be sold in Egypt again.

It is now clear that Hawass has acknowledged that damage has been sustained to a number of sites and storage locations.

At the same time Hawass' resignation should not be seen as an excuse for museums and collectors to retain recently-surfaced antiquities listed by the (former) SCA.

Has Hawass resigned?

Lee Rosenbaum on Culturegrrl has presented evidence that Zahi Hawass may not have resigned.

Zahi Hawass Resigns

My Twitter feed first brought me indications that Zahi Hawass had resigned ... and then there was Kate Taylor's piece for the New York Times ("Egyptian Antiquities Chief Resigns", March 3, 2011).

Reached by telephone, Mr. Hawass said he was happy that he had made the “right decision” in resigning and lashed out at colleagues who have criticized him, including one who has accused him of smuggling antiquities.

Lee Rosenbaum has a good overview of the resignation ("End of an Egyptology Era: Zahi Hawass Resigns", CultureGrrl March 3, 2011). This came in the wake of Hawass listing of what appears to have been stolen from archaeological stores and sites during the recent unrest ("The status of Egyptian antiquities today, 3 March, 2011").

Cairo Museum: Paul Barford reports

Paul Barford has been inside the Cairo Museum and has written a helpful reflection on the issues since the political upheavals as well as the break-in.

The St Louis Art Museum Mummy Mask: Poll

The mask photographed just after its discovery.

SAFE is running a poll during March. It has been prompted by the recent decision of the St Louis Art Museum (SLAM) to take pre-emptive legal action in case Egypt makes a formal claim on a mummy mask acquired by the museum in 1998.

SAFE concludes:

We feel strongly that SLAM has not undertaken a full, rigorous and systematic due diligence procedure to exclude the possibility that the mask was not removed illegally from the Saqqara store. In addition, SLAM has so far been unable to present authenticated documentation to demonstrate that the mask did leave Egypt in the 1950s as has been suggested.

Why not give your electronic opinion through the online poll?

The scale of the market: a London perspective

© David Gill 

I have been charting the fluctuations in the New York market (see latest comments). I have been working with my project officer Kate Spiller on the scale of the London market and here are some of the preliminary findings.

Christie's in London offered some 5962 lots that sold for just under £40 million in the period from 1998 to 2010. The average value per lot was around £6700.