The New York Times, January 5, 2018, written by J. C. McKinley Investigators raided the office and the Manhattan home of the billionaire Michael H. Steinhardt on Friday afternoon, carrying off several ancient works that prosecutors say were looted from Greece and Italy. Mr. Steinhardt, a hedge-fund manager and philanthropist, has been collecting art from…
From Reuters.com, writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Dominic Evans and Pritha Sarkar, December 21, 2017 ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police said on Thursday they had rescued thousands of artefacts dating back to Anatolian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations in the largest operation to combat smuggling of ancient treasures in the country’s history. Among the items…
From The Guardian, written by Mary Shepperson, December 18, 2017 There’s been reason for cheer in metal detecting circles, with the news this month that 2016 saw a record number of finds reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This announcement has spawned numerous congratulatory reports – including in the Guardian – detailing the wonderful things…
The Republic, by COLLEEN LONG and VERENA DOBNIK – 12/17/17 NEW YORK — The lawmen who knocked on the door of Helen Fioratti’s Park Avenue apartment this fall weren’t hunting for a fugitive or a stash of drugs. They were after her coffee table. The small table was topped with a colorful marble mosaic that…
At the annual conference of the EAA in Barcelona, 5-8 September 2018, our committee organises a session on: CULTURAL PROPERTY: FROM LOOTING AND ILLEGAL TRADE TO RESTITUTION Theme: Archaeology and the European Year of Cultural Heritage (Session #763) Author: Dr Mödlinger, Marianne (France) – Université Bordeaux Montaigne Organisors: Dr Kairiss, Andris (Latvia) – Latvian Academy…
Dal sole24ore, Dicember 4, 2017, scritto da R. Galullo e A. Mincuzzi. Otto minuti di cammino separano la costruzione di vetro e acciaio del quartier generale di Ubs dal più inaccessibile museo della terra. Carouge, nella parte sudoccidentale di Ginevra, è un luogo di misteri. Il palazzo dell’Ubs ospitava fino a qualche anno fa la…
As recently discovered by Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist and Affiliated Researcher in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow, Lot no. 292, from the forthcoming auction of Millon, on Friday, 8th of December, in Paris, at Hotel Drouot, has quiet some doubtful origin. According to the Millon…
From Straits Times, November 30, 2017. A Chinese court has handed a death sentence to a “master” tomb raider from northern China who made a 30-year career out of robbing historical burial sites. A native of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 55-year-old Yao Yuzhong was found guilty of “digging ancient cultural sites and ancient graves”…
Two articles from the Basler Zeitung (also here), written by Raphael Suter, October 31, 2017 (in German). See also the Tageswoche (also German). Um die Verfahrenskosten zu decken, verkauft der Kanton Basel-Stadt einige Kunstgegenstände unsicherer Provenienz. Macht sich der Staat so nicht selber zum Hehler? Die rechtliche Situation ist klar, die moralische sehr viel komplexer.…
From Al-Monitor, written by Hani Sameer, November 21, 2017. Egypt recently recovered another cache of smuggled antiquities, bringing attention once again to the challenges of protecting the country’s ancient artifacts. Earlier this month, customs officers at Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates confiscated 354 artifacts dating from different eras of ancient Egyptian and…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 