This Monday, November 7, our committee member Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, senior archaeologist at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, identified an Etruscan terracotta antefix (lot 14) in the forthcoming Bonhams auction in London, on November 30th, 2016, as deriving from the Medici archive (see images on the right). But the collecting history given by…
Four people were arrested Wednesday for illegally trading in antiquities and drug smuggling in a police sting operation in various parts of Attica. Police said one of the suspects, a 52-year-old, was collared in a central Athens hotel as he tried to complete the sale of ancient artifacts for a price of 200,000 euros to…
A recent article from the German TV-Channel ‘Das Erste’ by Andreas Wolter (in German) discusses the unsecure provenance of a Poseidon statuette recently sold at Gorny & Mosch in Munich (though the auction house is not mentioned by name). The auction house names as provenance only ‘Ex collection A.T., Munich, since 1985’. But the statue…
Our committee is now also officially contributing to the ICOM International Observatory on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods! But why? Every day, somewhere in the world, an object is either stolen or looted in order to be illegally sold on the market. Illicit trafficking in works of art and cultural property has become a serious…
The University of Padoa organises an international Winter School “Anthropology of forgery. A multidisciplinary approach to the study of archaeological fakes“. The school will take place February 13-17, 2017 in Padua and gather a pool of international scholars who are committed to the study of, and to the fight against, illegal activities within the sphere…
The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio recently sold nearly 70 antiquities from Egypt, Italy, and Cyprus for $1.2 million. New York auction house Christie’s said Thursday the total comes from live and online auctions this week. Egyptian officials earlier this week sought to stop the auction and wanted the items from Egypt returned there.…
The Model Export Certificate for Cultural Objects was jointly prepared by the Secretariats of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO), cooperating to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property. It is specially adapted to the increasing phenomenon of cross border movements of the cultural objects. Knowing that…
A new master in archaeological law and crimes against the cultural heritage is offered by the Centro per gli Studi Criminologici, giuridici e sociologici and the Dipartimento di Beni Culturali ed Archeomafie, in cooperation with the Osservatorio Internazionale Archeomafie. Lectures will be held in Italian and take place at the Istituto Internazionale di Formazione METAFORM…
The current volume VII of the journal Archeomafie is now online. It is the first journal of its kind in Italy and you can find different topic related articles in Italian. The journal (ISSN 2036-4539) is published by the Osservatorio Internazionale Archeomafie in coperation with Liberarcheologia and the Centro Studi Criminologici di Viterbo. You find…
The SAA organises online seminars. One of special interest for us is the one on November 10, 2016, on Working With Metal Detectorists: Citizen Science at historic Montpelier and Engaging a New Constituency. The seminar will be held by Matthew Reeves, the Director of Archaeology at James Madison’s Montpelier. The goals of this one hour,…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 