September 7, 2000

Shelby White and the committee for archaeological policy

To: securma@xs4all.nl

Letter to the Editor by Shelby White, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 2000, A27

Antiquities Policies

Your article criticizing my appointment to the president's committee for archaeological policy ("Comment: Archaeology," Leisure & Arts, Aug. 16) suggests that you neither understand the purpose of the committee nor its mandated membership.
The committee was formed to review requests from foreign governments for "import restrictions" when their national cultural heritage is in jeopardy. The restrictions are to go into effect only when other nations sign similar import restrictions. The issue of what constitutes objects that are endangered is far more complex than your article implies. The committee is not a watchdog for the antiquities market.
You suggest that I do not belong on the committee because I collect. In fact, the legislation calls for representation from a diverse group, not just from archaeologists.
I welcome the chance to add my point of view to theirs.
Shelby White
New York

Comment: Archaeology II, WSJ, Aug. 31, 2000, A18

Information, Please

In a letter yesterday, Shelby White complained that we (in "Comment: Archaeology," Aug. 16) don't "understand the purpose" of the president's committee for archaeology. She added that the committee is not a "watchdog" for the antiquities market and that "the issue of what constitutes objects that are endangered is far more complex than your article implies."
Unfortunately, Ms. White does not instruct us further. Perhaps she is referring to the various sleazy methods used by thieves who spirit ancient objects from the ground before archaeologists can study them, methods that include creating good title for their booty in Switzerland, prior to bringing their loot here and selling it with legal impunity to superficially respectable collectors who thereby launder the plundered treasures and get a tax deduction by donating them to museums, which then reward the donors with trusteeships and galleries named in their honor.
Perhaps Ms. White means something else. But as a major collector of antiquities, she needs to come up with a better answer to the inevitable suspicion that surrounds her opulent hobby. The suspicion that unprovenanced antiquities have been smuggled out of source countries with restrictive export policies after being surreptitiously removed from their age-old resting places clouds the entire market in antiquities, not just Ms. White's splendid acquisitions. We agree that her voice could [with emphasis] add "diversity" to the committee's discussions, but the evasive letter makes us doubt that it will help much.

The Art Newspaper, Sept. 2000, 3

A fox among doves? Anger at appointment of collector

New York. The naming of an antiquities collector to a governmental committee that oversees the trade in those objects has infuriated American archaeologists.
On 9 August, President Bill Clinton appointed Shelby White to the eleven-member cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC), which considers requests for import controls from countries where archaeological objects are excavated and shipped to the US in violation of local laws. The Committee can recommend that imports from certain regions be restricted. Such restrictions have been imposed for antiquities from Mali, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Cyprus.
Ms White and her husband, the financier Leon Levy, are active collectors, museum and university patrons, and sponsors of the publication of archaeological field work. Her detractors say that Ms White has bought the very objects that the Committee should try to keep out of the country, citing half of a Herakles torso which fits another half in the Antalya Museum in Turkey.
The sponsor of Ms White's appointment, US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, argued that her presence on the Committee helps meet the goal of providing strong debate over the import of cultural property into the US. Ms White says the opposition to her is an attack on the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where she is a trustee). Letters endorsing her were sent to President Clinton by the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art (who is also president of the Association of Art Museum Directors), academics (from institutions she and her husband have funded) and others. Senator Moynihan has supported Hilary Clinton's efforts for election to succeed him as senator from New York State. Ms White's appointment has been interpreted as Bill Clinton's thanks for that favour. Senator Moynihan has been a battering ram in Washington for Wall Street and for the financial executives who collect art and serve as museum trustees.

additional information:

http://www.fragments.gosite.com/glories.htm
http://www.swan.ac.uk/classics/staff/dg/looting/gchs/sld001.htm
http://www.cycladic-m.gr/temporary/iberian.htm

Date: 6 Sep 2000 01:00:03 -0000
From: "Theft Report Related Sites" info@TheftReports.com
Subject:

Theft Reporting in the Antiques Industry

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