As recently posted, the Royal-Athena Galleries, New York,had until recently a sarcophagus, which presents a battle between Greeks and Trojans, on sale. The gallery is owned by Dr. Jerome Eisenberg, New York, and has a more than doubtful history, since it is tighly connected with the Italian illicit antiquities dealer Gianfranco Becchina. Thanks to Dr.…
An international Colloquium on ‘Initiatives to strengthen international capacities for the protection of cultural property and the prevention of illicit trafficking in cultural goods – the Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property‘ will take place in Strasbourg this week on January 13, 2017. It is organised by the Council of Europe.…
Cairo and Washington signed an MoU last month to impose tighter restrictions on the illicit importation of Egyptian antiquities. Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs repatriated on Monday five late pharaonic-era artefacts which had been smuggled to, and recently recovered in the US, General Supervisor of the Antiquities Repatriation Department Shabaan Abdel-Gawad told Ahram Online. Minister…
A Roman marble fragment currently on sale at the Royal-Athena Galleries, owned by Dr. Jerome Eisenberg, New York, has a more than doubtful history. The fragment of this sarcophagus, which presents a battle between Greeks and Trojans, is depicted in four Polaroid images (see below) and is referred to in three handwritten notes, in the…
The Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg just published a leaflet with guidelines on how to deal with metal detectorists or people carrying out illegal excavations. It includes the definitions of Raubgräber (someone excavating without permission) and Sondengänger (metal detectorists), and the current legal background in Baden-Württemberg. It is in any case suggested to call the police…
Swiss authorities have seized cultural relics looted from Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, as well as from Libya and Yemen, which were being stored in Geneva’s free ports.The free ports provide highly secured warehouses where basically anything can be kept tax-free with few questions asked. The confiscated objects, from the third and fourth centuries, include…
This week, our committee member Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, senior archaeologist at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, identified again several objects of very doubtful provenance in a forthcoming auction; this time it is the auction of Gorny & Mosch in Munich on December 14, 2016. The four identified antiquities derive from the Robin Symes…
Extension of Import Restrictions Imposed on Certain Archaeological and Ethnological Material From Greece Very good news indeed. This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect the extension of import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material from the Hellenic Republic (Greece). The restrictions, which were originally imposed by CBP Decision…
How freeports developed, work, are (mis)used, is quite clear; a recent article from The Economist gives further details. Freeports are also well known in relation to storing archaeological items – see for instance the Symes case and the involved Geneva Free Ports. However, there may be change on the way, at least in Switzerland. Since…
Université Libre De Bruxelles / Campus Solbosch: mardi, 29 novembre 2016, 9-18:00 Journée d’étude sur “Le trafic illicite des biens culturels, source de financement du terrorisme et des groupes armés“, organisé par la Commission Belge Francophone et Germanophone pour l’UNESCO. La question du trafic illicite des biens culturels fait l’objet depuis de nombreuses années de…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 