June 24, 2002

- Egypt to press for protecting Palestinian religious sites
- Ancient manuscripts lifted from Polish castle
- On the trail of Milosevic's millions
- Digging Up Dirt (An antiquities case unearths corruption)
- Archaeological looting: US gets tougher on lucrative crime
- Sculpture stolen in '79 is returned
- Germany Returns Russian Paintings Stolen in WWII
- Most of paintings stolen from Spanish billionaire recovered
- follow-up on the museum fire in SA from Arab News
- South Florida lures cultured smugglers
- product information: Automated key management
- MINEOLA: MUSEUM OFFICIAL ARRESTED
- Even archaeology affected by Kosovo's ethnic strife

Egypt to press for protecting Palestinian religious sites

Egypt will participate in meetings of UNESCO's world heritage committee to open in the Hungarian capital Budapest on June 23. Dr. Gaballah Ali Gaballah, an adviser to the Minister of Culture who will lead the Egyptian delegation to the five-day meetings, said in statements to MENA that Egypt will submit a paper to the conference on the protection of Palestinian Islamic and Christian holy sites from Israeli aggression and attempts to Judaise Al-Quds city. Egypt and all other Arab countries members of UNESCO are to press for sending an international fact-finding team to the Palestinian territories to stand on the situation on the ground and prepare a detailed report, on the hazards facing holy sanctuaries in Palestine, for the coming UNESCO Congress in Paris in mid-September. According to Gaballah, the Budapest meeting is to discuss the inclusion of Egypt's Saint Catherine Monastery, in Sinai, as the country's sixth world heritage site. http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/

Ancient manuscripts lifted from Polish castle

WARSAW: More than 300 ancient documents, including manuscripts penned by royalty, have disappeared from the Wawel royal castle in Krakow, the archives director said on Thursday. The disappearance of historic documents, including manuscripts from Polish kings, Napoleon I, and the French writer Georges Sand, was discovered after a detailed inventory in early June, Daria Nalecz said. The archival inventory was ordered following the arrest of two men, including the head conservator, who were suspected of stealing an indefinite number of ancient documents. Nalecz said it was difficult to know precisely how many documents -- all dating from the 16th to 19th centuries -- were stolen, given that the thief made off not only with the documents, but also the cards noting their description. Nalecz said she had called for an inventory in all branches of the national archives and the implementation of a more rigorous archival system. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

On the trail of Milosevic's millions

By Dominic Kennedy
GOLD bars belonging to the National Bank of Yugoslavia were smuggled out of the country during the last days of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, according to a secret investigation into his missing millions. The bank’s identification stamps were said to have been removed from the ingots in a Greek port and the gold transported in small boats across the Ionian Sea to Italy. Antiques, artefacts, gold and silver cutlery and rare carpets were also said to have been smuggled from Yugoslavia with the dictator’s knowledge, having been either looted during the Balkans wars or “fenced” through the region after being stolen in western Europe. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

Digging Up Dirt

An antiquities case unearths corruption.

BY RICHARDO J. ELIA
Thursday, June 20, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
Last week's sentencing of antiquities dealer Frederick Schultz shocked a trade already reeling from scandal. Mr. Schultz, owner of a Manhattan ancient-art gallery and former president of the National Association of Dealers in Ancient, Oriental and Primitive Art, was convicted in February of conspiring to sell artifacts stolen from Egypt in violation of a 1983 law declaring all antiquities public property. One of the objects was a head of Amenhotep III, which Mr. Schultz sold for $1.2 million. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff sentenced Mr. Schultz to 33 months in prison, fined him $50,000 and ordered him to return an Old Kingdom relief panel to Egypt. The judge described Mr. Schultz, an opponent of restrictions on the international trade in ancient art, as "no different than an ordinary thief." Mr. Schultz is expected to appeal. The trial exposed the sleazy business practices that underpin the antiquities market, whose inventory is mainly artifacts looted from archaeological sites and smuggled out of source countries. According to the indictment, Mr. Schultz arranged to receive and sell Egyptian antiquities from a British associate, Jonathan Tokeley-Parry, who served a prison term in England after being convicted of smuggling in the case. In the early 1990s, Mr. Tokeley-Parry faxed Mr. Schultz a letter saying he needed money because the "boys have just returned from the hills above Minea, which is bandit country . . . and we are offered a large hoard." Later, he shipped Mr. Schultz two Old Kingdom reliefs with the assurance that they came from a tomb unknown to Egyptian authorities. The smuggling of the stone head of Amenhotep III involved coating the piece with a plastic resin and painting it to resemble a gaudy souvenir. To hide the fact that the head had recently been smuggled out of Egypt, Mr. Schultz claimed it came from the "Thomas Alcock Collection," supposedly owned by an English family since the 1920s (and thus predating current law).
The issue of provenance--the history of an artifact--is central to the problems of the antiquities trade. For more than a century, dealers, collectors and museums openly traded in looted and smuggled antiquities, no questions asked. Many still do. Where artifacts come from and even the identities of buyers and sellers are jealously guarded secrets. Commonly 70% to 90% of antiquities in auction catalogs list no provenance. Sometimes previous owners are identified, but these are largely unverifiable and easily falsified. Tags like "from an old European collection" have been standing jokes in the trade for years. There is plenty of evidence that provenances are routinely forged. When the Getty Museum acquired its famous statue of a Greek youth in the 1980s, the documentation placing the statue in a Swiss collection in the 1930s was revealed to be false, leaving the piece (which some claim is itself a fake) without a history. A federal judge in 1999 upheld the seizure of an ancient Greek libation bowl that had been dug illegally and smuggled out of Italy. U.S. Customs agents seized the bowl from the home of Michael Steinhardt, a prominent New York collector. The judge's decision was based on the dealer's filing false customs documents listing Switzerland as the country of origin, instead of Italy, and misrepresenting the object's value. The Schultz case establishes the legal principle that cultural property stolen in countries like Egypt will be regarded as stolen under U.S. law. This is a principle many dealers, collectors and museums have opposed. The ethic of the trade considers objects pilfered from museums, churches and the like to be stolen, but not artifacts buried in unprotected archaeological sites. These, despite the destruction of history and heritage that accompanies their illicit removal, traditionally have been fair game for the market.
In recent years, antiquities collecting has become increasingly discredited in the face of overwhelming evidence of direct links between the collecting of unprovenanced artifacts and the destruction of archaeological sites. The U.S. and other countries are taking action to protect sites and objects. Museums with outmoded acquisition policies are regularly criticized for abetting looters and smugglers. Private collecting of unprovenanced antiquities is now widely regarded as selfish and destructive, rather than as a safeguarding of ancient art. With an ever-growing risk of suits and seizures, private collectors and museums are being forced to rethink antiquities collecting. Don't be surprised to see the auction houses getting out of antiquities. Museums are being dragged kicking and screaming into adopting ethical acquisition policies, so they will eventually stop being a source of tax breaks for collectors who donate their artifacts. Dealers like Mr. Schultz will continue to be marginalized as their clients realize they may be harmed by the trade's cavalier disregard for cultural heritage.
Mr. Elia is vice president of the Archaeological Institute of America.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/

Archaeological looting: US gets tougher on lucrative crime

By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
SANTA FE NATIONAL FOREST, N.M. – If a group of hikers came across this piney area on the San Juan Mesa, they probably wouldn't know they were standing on an ancient Pueblo Indian dwelling – now just piles of rubble covered over with 500 years of soil and vegetation. But someone did know and came with shovels and picks to dig for pottery, baskets, and turquoise jewelry. The booty could have meant thousands of dollars to the finder on the stolen antiquities market. This illicit business is so lucrative, say law enforcement officials, that it ranks right behind drugs, guns, and money laundering. Now Congress is preparing tougher penalties for damage to the nation's cultural heritage. This fallen village is one of as many as 8,000 sites scattered around the volcanically formed Jemez Mountains in niches so remote the looting wasn't discovered until the pot hunters – and pots – were long gone.

Remote, vulnerable sites

With one of the highest concentrations of significant archeological sites in the Southwest, the Jemez district of the Santa Fe National Forest is a vivid example of just how hard it is to keep tabs on some of the nation's oldest ruins and relics. A decade ago, if pot hunters were caught, they'd likely have gotten a slap on the wrist – if prosecutors had pursued the case at all. But in recent years, the US government, one of the largest preservers of such sites, has become more diligent about catching and prosecuting offenders, and judges are giving longer sentences. Perhaps more important, is a shift in public sentiment – resulting in citizens more willing to report suspicious activity and juries more willing to convict. "I don't think there is any question that there is a much greater degree of awareness and a higher level of sympathy toward ... preservation," says J.J. Brody, former director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. "But this is by no means a perfect world. Looting is still a very serious problem." While the days of loading up the kids in the camper and heading to Indian country for recreational pot- hunting may be gone, vandalizing and looting of these important historical sites continues. Congress is expected in November to pass tougher sentencing rules for crimes against cultural property – currently treated only like a property crime for purposes of punishment. For instance, last year, a man took a sledgehammer to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, denting the 250-year-old symbol of American freedom. The penalty he faced was "no more serious than, say, [if he'd been] stealing a computer or throwing a rock through a government window," says Richard Waldbauer, assistant director of the Federal Preservation Institute at the National Park Service in Washington. (Last month the man who struck the bell was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $7,093.)

Punishment to fit crime

"We've never had a penalty that fit the severity of the crime of damage or destruction to our nation's irreplaceable cultural heritage," says Mr. Waldbauer, who helped write the new sentencing guidelines for Congress. But in recent years, several major cases have shown what can be done when all agencies work together. Probably the most significant is the Quarrell case, in which two brothers where convicted of excavating, damaging, altering, and defacing an archeological resource as well as conspiracy to do so. When a hiker noticed – and reported – freshly dug holes in a remote area of the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico, US Forest Service officials began monitoring the site. When the brothers returned, they were arrested. They'd been looking for highly prized Mimbres painted pottery. Some pieces of the geometrically decorated pottery have sold legally for as much as $100,000. Last August, the men were each sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of $19,615 for restoration of the site they damaged. The case is on appeal. "It's a different type of challenge than, say, narcotics," says Robin Poague, a Forest Service agent who investigated the Quarrell case. "In those ... cases, it's illegal to possess cocaine. But Mimbres pots are not illegal to possess. So you have to catch people in the act of stealing them." That's an amazingly difficult task, Mr. Poague continues. Arizona and New Mexico have about 55,000 heritage sites on 21 million acres of land and only 45 patrol officers. That's why public engagement is critical in preserving these sites, he says. The interagency Site Steward program, which began in Arizona and has spread to other states, is one way. Volunteers check sites and report to law enforcement. The program is considered very successful. "The public is responding by recognizing that our cultural heritage is non- renewable and irreplaceable," says Waldbauer. "It is not something that can be cavalierly tossed about in a weekend picnic lark. It is inherent in the social wealth of our communities."
http://www.csmonitor.com/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Sculpture stolen in '79 is returned

By Donna Freedman
Tribune staff reporter
CHICAGO -- School is out, but "The Teacher" is back. The 380-pound bronze sculpture, stolen 23 years ago from the front of the national PTA headquarters on Rush Street, was returned Tuesday courtesy of a suburban art collector. One of three works commissioned by Chicago sculptor Milton Horn, "The Teacher" was removed from the facade of the PTA's old building, 700 N. Rush St., on May 22, 1979, according to PTA spokesman Michael Roberts. Whoever took the piece had to work at it, sawing through a pair of three-quarter-inch bolts. The theft made the PTA realize that the two other sculptures were at risk, Roberts said, so the companion "Mother" and "Father" were removed for safekeeping. The next year, the PTA asked Horn to re-cast "The Teacher" and the three works were displayed indoors. In 1997, graphic arts designer Robert Vogele was shopping at an antique store in La Grange Park when he came upon a 30-inch-tall bronze statue of a teacher. Vogele prefers abstract works, but the statue cost only $2,000 and he figured he could trade it to a dealer for a more modern work. When he called the Milton Horn Art Trust to research the piece, he found it had been stolen. Vogele decided to return the work, but "it wasn't a priority" and the piece remained in storage in his downtown office until he retired last December and called the PTA. "They were very happy to receive it," said Vogele, who lives in Western Springs. Roberts said the PTA waited to announce the return in order to get the right group of people together for a ceremony: Vogele, Paula Ellis of the Milton Horn Art Trust, national PTA President Shirley Igo and Dr. Howard Sulkin, director of the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, to which the PTA is donating the re-cast Horn sculpture. Now, the original "Teacher" is back and the trio of sculptures, appraised at $300,000, is on display at the PTA's headquarters, 330 N. Wabash Ave., according to Roberts.

Germany Returns Russian Paintings Stolen in WWII

VOA News
23 Jun 2002 02:24 UTC

Germany Returns Russian Paintings Stolen by Nazi Troops in WWII

Germany has returned to Russia seven paintings stolen by Nazi troops from museums near Leningrad during World War II. Officials say the return of the art works, under a protocol signed in May, symbolizes the new friendly relations between the former adversaries. A ceremony marking the handover was held Saturday, as Russia paid tribute to millions of war dead on the 61st anniversary of Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Russian state leaders joined war veterans for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. Other memorials took place throughout the country. On June 22, 1941, Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union to begin what Russians call the "Great Patriotic War" (World War II). The bloody conflict ended with a Soviet victory in 1945 at a terrible cost of more than 20 million Russian war dead. http://www.voanews.com/

Most of paintings stolen from Spanish billionaire recovered

By MAR ROMAN The Associated Press 6/22/02 5:17 PM
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Police have found 10 of 17 artworks stolen last year from the collection of a Spanish billionaire, including paintings by Goya, Pissarro and Brueghel, the interior minister said Saturday. The robbers took the 17 paintings and archaeological pieces from the home of construction tycoon Esther Koplowitz in August 2001, in the biggest art heist in Spain's history. The works had been piled in a room while construction was being done elsewhere. On Saturday, Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said he was hopeful the other seven paintings would be found. He declined to provide details of how or where the 10 paintings were recovered.

Police said they had arrested two suspects in the thefts.

Rajoy said police had informed him that among the paintings recovered were Francisco de Goya's "The Swing" and "The Donkey's Fall", which had been in their custody since Friday. Other canvases recuperated were , Tsuguharu Foujita's "Child with Hat," Camille Pissarro's "Landscape at Eragny" and "The Temptations of St. Antonio" by Pieter Brueghel. Officials have declined to place an exact value on the works, only saying they were worth millions of dollars. Like most other privately owned art in Spain, the paintings were uninsured. In Dec. 4, police rounded up four suspects, including the security guard at Koplowitz's home, and charged them with robbery although they were freed on bail four days later. Art experts believe the robbery was done for an illegitimate collector or for ransom, given the difficulty of selling the paintings and the wealth of their owner. Koplowitz, 51, is a well-known high society figure and major shareholder of Spain's leading construction company, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, or FCC, which she inherited from her father.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/

From: Tom Dixon tom.dixon@ngv.vic.gov.au
Subject: a follow-up on the museum fire in SA from Arab News-

Owner holds SEC responsible for museum fire

By John R. Bradley & Khaled Al-Fadhly
JEDDAH, 15 June - The owner of Abdul Rauf Khalil Museum in Jeddah, which burned to the ground last Wednesday, has told Arab News that he holds the Saudi Electricity Company responsible for the devastating fire. Abdul Rauf Khalil added that he was confident that the result of the investigation into the fire would enable him to demand compensations from the company for the huge losses resulting from the fire, estimated to be as much as SR100 million. He said that he had material evidence that the electricity supply had stopped for several hours and then resumed with much higher voltage than was necessary, which led to the short-circuiting of the museum's air-conditioning system. That, he said, was the cause of the subsequent fire. Khalil also claimed that the same electricity fault two days before the fire had resulted in electricity short-circuits in a number of houses adjacent to the museum. However, Fouad Al-Shuraiby, director of the power company in the Western Province, categorically denied that his company had anything to do with the fire. "Our responsibility ends at the meters. The supply lines to and from the electricity network to the museum were safe and did not cause any fire," he told Arab News. Shuraiby emphasized that a maintenance team from the electricity company is providing the investigating team with all necessary assistance. "There was no abnormal electricity supply anywhere in the area when the fire broke out," Shuraiby said. He blamed shabby wiring inside the museum for the fire. A source close to the investigation last night confirmed to Arab News that they have come to no conclusion regarding the cause of the fire. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he also dismissed as "nuts" speculation - widespread on the streets of Jeddah - that the fire somehow was the result of the owner's personal history, or the fact that a number of the museum's artifacts were considered by some to be "un-Islamic". "The investigation is simply not focusing on any of that," the source confirmed. Khalil stated that he was not in any case the sole owner of the museum. "There was another owner, who relinquished his ownership in favor of a charitable fund, which helps the poor in the city," he said. The charity is financed by returns from the museum's sales. However, Khalil did not disclose the fund's capital or its annual profits. Khalil raised objections to the statement by Dr. Saad Al-Rashid, deputy minister for antiquities and museums, who had said that Abdul Rauf Khalil Museum was "a warehouse and not a museum". "Our museum contained more valuable antiquities than those possessed by all the agencies for antiquities and museums," Khalil pointed out. Khalil said the museum was the result of his 56 years of collecting antiques and artifacts of various nations and civilizations. "We constructed four wooden villas according to international standards," he explained, adding that the Civil Defense had then certified that the construction was safe.
From Arab News, 15 June 2002

South Florida lures cultured smugglers

The Associated Press
MIAMI - The list of stolen goods routed through South Florida's shady contraband corridors reads like a high-end auction house catalog: Greek statues, museum-quality paintings, Peruvian artifacts. Priceless goods recovered from art thieves by FBI and U.S. Customs agents in Miami and Fort Lauderdale have been found in briefcases, hidden under fresh fish in wooden crates, stowed in the seat-bottoms of cheap furniture, in car trunks and classy hotel rooms. A Flemish masterpiece was found in February. Ancient Peruvian artifacts in 1995 and 1997. A Salvador Dali painting in 1993, a Peter Paul Rubens in 1991 and a Goya in 1989, among others. ''There's a lot of money in South Florida, some of it dirty,'' Michael Sheehan, U.S. Customs spokesman, told The Miami Herald for its Sunday editions. ''It's easy to sell a painting here; they know the people will keep it quiet because their money is dirty just like the art is hot.'' Two Rubens paintings were recovered in 1982, one from a self-employed construction consultant, another from an unemployed man living on disability. A Goya was found with a retired Argentine policeman living in Miami Beach in 1989. A cache of Irish antiquities was recovered in 1991 from an Irishman who had moved to Miami.

Coveted classics

South Florida has become an accessible conduit for stolen masterpieces. Here are some that moved through the area - but were found - in recent years:
-- Two Peter Paul Rubens in 1982.
-- A Goya in 1989.
-- A cache of Irish antiquities in 1991
-- Another Rubens in 1991.
-- A Salvador Dali painting in 1993.
-- Ancient Peruvian artifacts in 1995 and 1997.
-- 271 stolen Greek artifacts, including statues of gods, urns, wine jugs and a marble head of Dionysius, found this month.

Art theft is not the glamorous caper it's often portrayed to be, said Anna Kisluk, director of the Art Loss Register, a New York City firm that keeps a database of stolen art to help galleries and insurance companies recover it. ''It's not usually stolen on commission for collectors,'' Kisluk said. ''The image people have of a mad, crazy collector sitting in a vault admiring his stolen art, the plot of the James Bond film, Dr. No, is more fiction than fact.'' FBI and Customs agents are tight-lipped about how they catch art smugglers. In a current case of 271 stolen Greek artifacts, including statues of gods, urns, wine jugs and a marble head of Dionysius, the FBI would say only that agents received a tip and worked with Greek investigators.

The objects were recovered last week in Miami.

''We're excited that they've been recovered. It was one of the major crimes against our cultural heritage,'' said Achilles Paparsenos, spokesman for the Greek Embassy in Washington. Paparsenos said Greek police have a suspect in the case. A rise in art thefts apparently began in the 1980s, with the boom in legitimate sales. When Kisluk's firm took over the registry of stolen art in 1991, it listed 25,000 stolen artworks; today it has 100,000. Anyone trying to sell stolen goods openly probably is exposed quickly, she said. http://gainesvillesun.com/

Date sent: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 18:59:10 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Automated key management
From: W. Boerbooms" w.boerbooms@norisk-keymanagement.nl

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MINEOLA: MUSEUM OFFICIAL ARRESTED

A conservator who oversaw artifact restoration for Nassau County's museums was arrested yesterday and accused of stealing century-old artifacts under his care. The conservator, Richard Kappeler, 54, of Oyster Bay, is charged with stealing at least $20,000 in objects, including 18th-century chairs and a 19th-century clock, said Philip Tomich, the deputy chief of special investigations for the Nassau County district attorney's office. Mr. Kappeler has been dismissed. His lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
Stacy Albin (NYT)

Even archaeology affected by Kosovo's ethnic strife

By Edita Bucinca
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 23 (Reuters) - While the world's attention was focused on whether NATO would launch air strikes against Yugoslavia in early 1999, about 700 ancient artefacts were brought from Pristina to Belgrade for display at an exhibition on Kosovo and have been kept there ever since. Many rare ethnological items such as jewellery and national costumes, presented at an earlier Belgrade exhibition in late 1998, have also not found their way back to Pristina. These exhibits and others, which departed along with the museum's Serb management as the United Nations and NATO forces entered the province in June 1999, are now in the vaults of the Ethnographic Museum and the National Museum in Belgrade. A dispute is now simmering over the thousands of museum items in storage in Belgrade, reflecting poisoned relations in all aspects of society -- even among old colleagues in the world of archaeology. The new ethnic Albanian leadership of the Pristina national museum has appealed to the international community to help get the treasures back, saying they are part of the Yugoslav province's cultural heritage and belong there.
Kosovo's U.N. governor Michael Steiner has backed their call. But he has also cautioned against making the fate of the relics an ethnic or political issue. "All the artefacts should go to the place they belong to," Steiner told Reuters in an interview. Officials in Belgrade last month gave Steiner a 6,000-year-old stone figurine previously held in Pristina to take back to the Kosovo capital in an apparent sign of goodwill. "What I would try to avoid is any form of politicisation," Steiner said. "This should be dealt with on its own merits. Culture should not be used for national means."

WORK HAMPERED

Kosovo Albanian archaeologists say up to 3,000 artefacts which belong in the province are currently held in Belgrade. They include items from different periods in Kosovo, spanning from the sixth millennium BC to the 15th century. Kosovo expert Exhlale Dobruna-Salihu said her research was suffering because of the missing artefacts. "Every archaeological piece is unique," she said. "The value of the items that are missing is priceless." But Branko Jokic, former director of the Pristina museum who along with roughly 180,000 other Serbs fled Kosovo after the conflict, said the artefacts in Belgrade had been brought there purely for exhibition or safekeeping. "No one brought out materials with some ulterior motives. These were important exhibitions prepared jointly by Albanian and Serb experts," he told Reuters in Belgrade. Asked about returning the pieces held at Belgrade's National Museum to Kosovo, he was cautious. "Access to this material and its security would have to be ensured," he said. Jokic said that who inherited the ethnological pieces was a different issue, as most were linked to the Serb community in Kosovo, some from the Ottoman era. "The pieces had been collected for years and all the works were financed by Serbia." That argument may ring hollow for Kosovo Albanian archaeologists, who say Serb authorities withheld funds to prevent them carrying out their own work in the past decade.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION?

Mirjana Menkovic, curator at Belgrade's Ethnography Museum and earlier for 15 years in Pristina, said the international community should mediate if the two sides were unable to find a solution to what she called an "extremely delicate problem." "No one has stolen anything, the material is stored in adequate depots. But are the Albanians also asking for their Serb colleagues to return together with the exhibits, or do they just want the material back?" she said. Kosovo was placed under U.N. administration in 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO bombing. The air war drove out Serb forces responsible for a campaign of killings and expulsions of majority Albanians under autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, ousted by reformers in 2000. Ethnic Albanians targeted Serbs in numerous revenge attacks after the war, sparking an exodus of Serbs and other Kosovo minorities. Few have dared return. The smouldering hostility makes it difficult for Serb archaeologists to work there. "Right now a Serb expert can't just come to Kosovo," Jokic said. But while the debate goes on, ethnic Albanian experts are busy working at the site of what is seen here as the most important archaeological discovery in Kosovo in the last decade, when a lack of funds hampered such scientific activities. A local man came across the remains of a stone-age dwelling as he built a house by the village of Bernica outside Pristina. "We hope to reconstruct the way in which this particular community lived," said supervisor Tomorr Kastrati. Kemajl Luci, in charge of the archaeological works, said many valuable items had been unearthed at the site, believed to date from 3,500 BC, including rare human-like idols. "This site is the richest in terms of findings in a wide area of the central Balkans," he said.
(Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic in Belgrade)
http://www.alertnet.org/