Many Getty Returns?

Midnight on 31 July is approaching - and we are waiting to see if the dispute is resolved between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Italian Government. [See report in the LA Times]

In November 2006 the Getty agreed to return 26 items. Many had been identified from Polaroids seized in the Geneva Freeport on premises associated with Giacomo Medici. The 26 items had been acquired between 1971 and 1996; they included 6 items from the Fleischman collection. Many had appeared as Masterpieces of the Getty Collection. (See my 1998 review.) There are clear links with Atlantis Antiquities (jointly owned by Robert Hecht and Jonathan Rosen), Robin Symes, and Galerie Nefer in Zurich (Frida Tchacos). The evidence is telling and a full discussion of the 26 items by Gill and Chippindale is in press.

At least nine other pieces from the former Fleischman collection appear in the Polaroids. Five had passed through the hands of Fritz Burki, 2 through Symes. Non-Fleischman material include objects acquired from Antike Kunst Palladion of Basel. There appears to be a strong case for the Getty to return these items to Italy - and for them to be added to the 26.

Then there is the acrolithic statue (whether or not it came from Morgantina). It surfaced in a Swiss collection and passed through the hands of Robin Symes. Its history looks suspicious. (And it also seems that the surfacing date of 1939 was fabricated.)

The Getty Youth or Fano Athlete is a different matter. It seems to have surfaced in the 1960s prior to the 1970 UNESCO Convention. That is not to say that there is moral pressure for the Getty to return the sculpture - but the issues are different and the negotiations can follow a different track.

If the bronze athlete is removed from the equation for the moment, can this dispute be resolved to the satsifaction of both sides? Failure to return antiquities which feature in the infamous Polaroids will only further tarnish the Getty's reputation. The clock is ticking.

Brussels Oriental Art Fair III

The Museum Security Network has carried a news story from The Hindu about the Brussels Oriental Art Fair (BOAF) III and the problem of recently surfaced oriental antiquities.

I note from the BOAF Press Release that:

'Participants will ensure that they exhibit Oriental and Asian antiquities of a quality compatible with the requirements of a high-level fair and they bear sole responsibility for the items they exhibit. Items which are of doubtful origin and in general items which B.O.A. Organisation considers are not of the quality expected for presentation at the Fair may not under any circumstances be exhibited there'.

So how do you ensure that a piece is not of 'doubtful origin', i.e. has not been removed from an archaeological site by illicit means? The suggestion is that vendors should contact The Art Loss Register.

Imagine the answer.

'When the artefact was deposited in its archaeological context 800 years ago, the then owner did not register it with The Art Loss Register. There is no record in our database.'

So you can sell with a clear conscience ... surely?

The antiquities collection of 'the worst man in the world'

When Jonathan Pine enters Crystal, the home of Roper ('the worst man in the world'), he passes through a gallery.

Greek torsos, marble heads, hands, urns and stone panels of hieroglyphics stood or lay about in disarray. Brass-bound glass cabinets ran along the walls crammed with figurines. Hand-printed signs declared their provenance: West African, Peruvian, pre-Columbian, Cambodian, Minoan, Russian, Roman, and in one case simply "Nile".

Richard Onslow Roper, trader of arms, shipper of drugs, is based in Nassau, the Bahamas. And he collects antiquities.

Arms, drugs, antiquities come together.

But this is fiction.

Pine is the eponymous Night Manager created by John Le Carre (chapter 16).

The real world is so different ... isn't it?

Wartime 'loot'

How many archaeological objects residing in collections were uncovered during wartime activities? I recently noticed this (modest) one now in the Kestner-Museum in Hannover, Germany.

An Early Corinthian oinochoe formerly in the Putzer collection (Hannover) was found at the southern end of the Corinth canal ‘auf der athenischen Seite’ (inv. 1988, 108; pl. 14, 1): the significant date for the find is given as 1943.

What else has been removed under similar circumstances?

REFERENCE
MLASOWSKY (A.) Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 72: Hannover, Kestner-Museum, 2. Munich: C.H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2000. Pp. 88, figs. 13, pll. 63. 3406468225.

The scale of the market for Egyptian antiquities

The return of antiquities to Italy and Greece has perhaps diverted our gaze from one of the other major sources of what appear to be recently surfaced antiquities. Between 1998 and 2007 Sotheby's in New York held over 20 sales over antiquities with some 1300 lots of Egyptian objects. This aspect of the sales was worth some US$41 million.

Many of the antiquities returning to Italy from North American museums have consisted of Athenian and South Italian pots. Yet these categories are a small element in value to Sotheby's in New York. Athenian figure-decorated pots have only raised some US$6.4 million, and South Italian pottery (Apulian, Lucanian, Campanian) just under US$1 million. In other words the sale of Egyptian antiquities is 6 times more valuable to Sotheby's than Athenian pottery, and 40 times more valuable than South Italian pottery. Or to put it another way, should we be more concerned about the damage to the archaeological record in Egypt than to what has been happening in Greece and Italy? (And that is not to belittle the very real destruction that has been taking place in those countries.)

But are the Egyptian antiquities at Sotheby's coming from old collections? Where the history is known (and presumably 'safe' to disclose) this is stated in the catalogue entry. (Confusingly the art world uses the term 'provenance' which usually points to the collecting history.) Nearly 70% of the Egyptian antiquities auctioned at Sotheby's New York appear to be unknown before 1973. Over 95% have no declared find-spot.

What are the material and intellectual consequences of collecting Egyptian antiquities?

Counting gigantes in New York

A friend in North America asked me if we were preparing a statistical study of the newly opened classical galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I would hate to be accused of 'bean counting' by the curator of the Greek and Roman antiquities, but Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome (2007) was sitting on my desk for use in another project.

A flick through the donors for the 476 entries presented some interesting names. Here are two that caught my eye.

Nicolas Koutoulakis gave a fragment of a glass bowl with erotic scene (no. 388; inv. 1995.86). His name appears in the infamous 'organigram' published in The Medici Conspiracy with a direct link to 'Robert Hechte' (sic). Koutoulakis' generosity goes back a long way and included an Etruscan Pontic amphora given in 1955 (no. 330; inv. 55.7).

The purchase of a Campanian (or South Italian) statuette of a bronze standing male figure was made possible through the gift of Jeanette and Jonathan Rosen (no. 66; inv. 2000.40). Is this the same Jonathan Rosen linked with Atlantis Antiquities and Robert Hecht? How did the bronze first surface?

Does this catalogue contain other equally prominent names in the world of North American collecting? Sadly the histories of the pieces have not been provided. How many objects passed through the hands of names now familiar from The Medici Conspiracy?

Antiquities from Cyprus

The new agreement restricting the import of Cypriot antiquities to the US is welcome news. It is encouraging to read that it is now recognised by the US authorities that 'coins constitute an integral part of the archaeological record of the island [of Cyprus]'.

Common sense has prevailed.

But I also note that Sotheby's in New York sold at least US $219,000 worth of Cypriot antiquities (in 39 lots) between June 1998 and June 2006. And what about the other auctioneers, dealers and galleries?

Cypriot is a minor component of the sale of antiquities at Sotheby's New York - less than 1% in value for this period. But Cypriot antiquities on offer without any recorded history or find-spot are almost certainly the 'fruits' of recent looting. How will the new legislation alter the future pattern of sales?