The ARCA blog obtained the permission of London journalist Howard Swains to republish his Medium article, London’s Loot: The Legacy of Robin Symes, in its entirety. Swains is a journalist and feature writer with experience across print and digital titles, including The Times, the Guardian, Independent, Newsweek, the Sunday Times Magazine and CNN. The article discusses in detail…
The archeological site of Jalžabet has been ruined these days. From the archaeological site of Jalžabet, Croatia, in the district of Bistričak, one of the largest prehistoric tombs in Europe is known. The excavations on site were supposed to start soon, but thieves robbed and damaged the site right before. Dr. Saša Kovačević from the…
In December 2010, Swiss Federal Customs Administration authorities, acting under new customs legislation to combat trafficking in works of art, requested access to the inventory of Phoenix Ancient Art SA., a major supplier of museum-quality antiquities, which stores ancient works of art at the Ports Francs et Entrepôts de Genève, a freeport located in a…
By Alessandro Vanzetti. During the night between September 6th and 7th 2017, the mostly wooden structure protecting the Late Roman Villa at Faragola, Commune of Ascoli Satriano, province of Foggia, Apulia, Italy (41°13′41.76″ N, 15°33′35.47″ E) was destroyed by fire. The devastation of the covering structure is total, and the technicians of the Italian Cultural…
Organised by Professor Duncan Chappell, Dr Saskia Hufnagel, and Ms Marissa Marjos, this is the third of three Art Crime focused workshops, the first two of which were in London. This workshop specifically focuses on the looting, plunder, and destruction of heritage. I’ll be giving a regional case study: trafficking of antiquities in and out…
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…
In the fall of 2016, Co-Director and cinematographer Trevor Wallace travelled with the archaeologist Gino Caspari to far Western China. They located over 100 graves in the militarized border zones near Russia and Kazakhstan. They followed the trail of stolen grave goods, escaped the military border guards, and spent time in traditional Kazakh villages wrestling…
‘We should give back art looted by the Nazis’, so a recent article by J. Miller, BBC, August 22, 2018, who is discussing the restitution of art looted by the Nazis in the German company Dr. Oetker‘s. The company now tries to find the original owners of the items of their vaste collection in order…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 