Art Forgery and Provenance

I attended the ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes against Art) Art Crime Symposium at the V&A in London today. There were two sessions:

• a. Art Recovery and Reward: Det Sgt Claire Hutcheon (Metropolitan Police), Charlie Hill, Richard Ellis, Jonathan Jones.
• b. Art Forgery and Provenance: Vernon Rapley, Christopher Marsden, Christos Tsirogiannis, Noah Charney.

I tweeted some of the themes here.

I was very struck by Jonathan Jones' point that art can be displayed in its original context (e.g. a church) rather than the sanitised environment of a museum. (It reminded me of the Houghton Hall exhibition --- and interestingly Peter Watson alluded to the exhibition during the discussion.)

During the discussion, Richard Ellis reminded us that due diligence meant that we needed to ensure that we left no stone unturned as we researched past collecting histories.

Vernon Rapley kept coming back to the Amarna Princess as well as other pieces from the same forger. He reminded us of little clues that would send curators down carefully laid false trails. Christopher Marsden (Senior Archivist at the V&A) reminded us of the forging of documentation to support "provenance".

Christos Tsirogiannis (U Cambridge) discussed a range of forged paperwork and collecting histories drawing on examples from the Medici Dossier, as well as the Sarpedon krater that had been acquired by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He explored the background to the Getty kouros.

Jonathan Rosen and the Met: the Etruscan dimension

Cornell's controversial acquisition of cuneiform tablets from (or via) Jonathan Rosen raises issues for other collections.

Here are some of the Etruscan donations acquired by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art:

1. 1991.171.2. Lunate razor of sharply curved form. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.19]
2. 1991.171.3. Sanguisuga-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.8]
3. 1991.171.4. Sanguisuga-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.9a]
4. 1991.171.8. Navicella-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.7c]
5. 1991.171.16. Dragon-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.4b]
6. 1991.171.17. Dragon-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.4a]
7. 1991.171.18. Dragon-type fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.4c]
8. 1991.171.29. Bow fibula. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.6]
9. 1991.171.44. Antefix fragment with gorgon head. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [4.123b]
10. 1991.171.50. Samnite belt. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [5.28]
11. 1991.171.51. Bracelet. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.12a]
12. 1991.171.52. Bracelet. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.12b]
13. 1991.171.53-55. Pendants in the form of paired human couples. Gift of Mr & Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [3.13]
14. 1992.11.3, 4, 10, 14a, 14b, 17, 18a-c, 19, 20, 21, 51, 52, 54, 55. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76]
15. 1992.11.11. Pendant. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.54].
16. 1992.11.13. Pendant of animal. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.55b].
17. 1992.11.16. Pendant of animal. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.55c].
18. 1992.11.22. Pendant. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.57].
19. 1992.11.23. Pendant. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.56].
20. 1992.11.24-27. Four pendants. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.49].
21. 1992.11.28. Pendant of human head. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.53d]
22. 1992.11.29a-n. Group of fourteen quails. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts. [7.60].
23. 1992.11.42a-q. Group of cowrie-shaped beads. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts[7.59].
24. 1992.11.48. Series of twenty-five squares. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.62]
25. 1992.11.50. Necklace with monkey pendant. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7. 58a]
26. 1992.11.57. Group of bulla-shaped pendants. Including The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts [7.61]
27. 1992.267.2. Pendant. Gift of Mr and Mrs Jonathan P. Rosen. [7.50]

What are the full collecting histories of all these pieces? When did they leave Italy?

Cornell and so-called unprovenanced tablets

In 2009 I reviewed James Cuno's edited volume Whose culture? for the Journal of Art Crime (pp. 99-100). This 'partial and partisan' book (as I described the book) contained an essay, "Censoring knowledge: the case for the publication of unprovenanced cuneiform tablets", by David I. Owen, the Bernard and Jane Schapiro Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University (pp. 125-42, [pp. 130-42 = endnotes]). Readers of LM will know that I dislike the terms "provenanced" and "unprovenanced": I prefer to use the phrase "collecting histories" (or lack!).

Perhaps David I. Owen can tell the full story of how Cornell acquired all these tablets.

In the meantime we look forward to reading the press release that Cornell has yet to issue.

Cornell to return cuneiform tablets to Iraq

Jason Felch is reporting that Cornell University will be returning some 10,000 cuneiform tablets to Iraq (Chasing Aphrodite, November 3, 2013). They were donated or placed on loan to Cornell by Jonathan Rosen, a former partner with Robert Hecht. Rosen was also one of the figures behind Athena Fund II.

These tablets should not be seen in isolation. Objects donated by Rosen (or that have passed through Atlantis Antiquities) to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and Princeton University Art Museum have been returned to Italy.

Dallas and Spina loan

Two Etruscan bronze shields
Formerly Dallas Museum of Art

The Italian Ministry of Culture has issued a press release about the return of objects from the Dallas Museum of Art. The positive and constructive attitude adopted by director Maxwell Anderson has now led to the loan of a tomb group (T512 A) from Spina (and housed in Ferrara).

Anderson is quoted:

“Siamo onorati ed entusiasti di continuare la nostra collaborazione ... con i nostri colleghi italiani. E’una rara opportunità poter ammirare questi oggetti tutti insieme, ed evidenziare il loro ruolo combinato nelle pratiche funerarie antiche”.

The loan material includes Attic pottery (krater, cup, oinochoe) and other items.

Bell-krater from Spina.
Source MiBAC

Spina T512 A during excavation
Source MiBAC

Bubon: Fire of Hephaistos

The Fire of Hephaistos exhibition included "seven bronzes ... that have been linked to the Bubon cache of imperial statues" (p. 177). These appear to be:

1. Lucius Verus. Shelby White collection. [no. 50]
2. Head of Lucius Verus. Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum inv. 73.AB.100. Purchased from Spink & Son, London. [no. 51]
3. Marcus Aurelius. Cleveland Museum of Art inv. 86.5. [under no. 54] [For the base.]
4. Heroic male torso (Commodus?). Private collection. [no. 55]. Perhaps linked to right leg of a man. Boston MFA inv. 68.732. Gift of Jerome M. Eisenberg and Alan Ravenal. [no. 16]
5. Front of a left foot/. Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum inv. 72.AB.103. Acquired from Nicolas Koutoulakis. [no. 19]
6. Mid-Antonine head of a woman. Worcester Art Museum inv. 1966.67. [no. 38]
7. Portrait head of a young man with a short beard. Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum inv. 71.AB.458. Acquired from Nicolas Koutoulakis. [no. 44]

No doubt the publication of the Leutwitz Apollo by the Cleveland Museum of Art will draw attention to this material removed from Turkey.

For further details of the Sebasteion see here.

The Leutwitz Apollo: Henry Lie's observations

Paul Barford has commented on Henry Lie's apparently visual examination of the Leutwitz Apollo on 17-18 October 2003. Lie is the director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard University.

Lie and Carol C. Mattusch wrote an essay, "Introduction to the catalogue entries and technical observations" for the Fire of Hephaistos catalogue. (See also my comments on this exhibition on JSTOR.)

They note "the emphasis is likely to be analysis of the metal and the corrosion products" (p. 162) not just visual observation. Did Lie use "a small diameter probe with video capability" (p. 165) on the Leutwitz Apollo? Lie even notes the "in-house" radiography facility at Cleveland (p. 166). There is also a section on "Lead joins" (p. 168), and another on "Ancient Bases" (p. 176).

All this makes the absence of x-rays, detailed images, and detailed scientific reports all the more surprising in Bennett's publication.