This article was published in US today on August 16, 2017. The arrest of five antiquities dealers in Jerusalem, who allegedly helped Hobby Lobby purchase illegally obtained ancient artifacts has shone a spotlight on the sale of antiquities in Israel and revived questions about the ethics of the trade in general. Five Jerusalem-based Palestinian dealers were…
The following article was copied from theconversation.com and written by Alice Stevenson, UCL; it was published July 13, 2017. Illicit antiquities are once again in the headlines. US retailer Hobby Lobby was recently fined US$3m (£2.3m) for illegally acquiring antiquities that were most likely looted from Iraq. Collectors and museums are therefore being reminded to undertake…
Programme The meeting will be held at ETH, Zürich, Switzerland on November 16-17, 2017. Eight presentation will introduce the problems around the antiquities and ilicite art trade. Round of short presentations by representatives of AMS laboratories; sharing experiance and practice in dating antiquites. Organiser, contact ETH Zürich (Hönggerberg) – Ion Beam Physics Otto-Stern-Weg 5, 8093…
For decades it was proudly displayed in the Greco-Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 2,300-year-old, vividly painted vase that depicts Dionysus, god of the grape harvest, riding in a cart pulled by a satyr. Today it sits in an evidence room at the district attorney’s office in Manhattan after prosecutors quietly seized…
The following article, copied from artsy.net, and written by John Zarobell, gives a very good impression about the functioning of freeports. Art is one of the most unregulated industries on the planet. Auction houses provide a space for exchange with prices determined in an open public forum, but many aspects of the auction house business…
Bulgarian officials said Friday they had recovered over 5,600 smuggled antiquities and arrested 22 members of two international smuggling rings in a joint operation with Turkey and France. A tip-off by the Bulgarian services eighteen months ago has led to the dismantling of “two international organized crime groups with members of different nationalities engaged in…
A Swedish academic who bought a rare antique Italian manuscript online from a university student in Bologna has helped police uncover a trove of stolen artwork and books. When his online purchase arrived from Italy to Sweden, the perspicacious professor from Lund University noticed a small antique ink stamp from the “Royal Library of Turin”…
Celebrating a repatriation decades in the making, U.S. and Italian law enforcement gathered in New York on Thursday with ancient statues, flasks and other artifacts set to be returned overseas. Bronzes of a Sardinian warrior and ox from the 8th century B.C., a Greek bronze of Heracles believed to be from the 3rd or 4th…
Sotheby’s offers the upper part of a Greek marble funerary stele on his next auction in London, on June 12, 2017 (lot 8) (see picture on the right). The funerary stele derives clearly from the confiscated Gianfranco Becchina archive according to Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist and Affiliated Researcher in the Scottish Centre for…
The Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property was adopted on 3 May 2017 and came into force on 19 May 2017 (Council of Europe Treaty Series no. 221). The Treaty is open for signature by the member States and the non-member States which have participated in its elaboration and for accession by other non-member…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 