By Paul Anast in Athens and Richard Alleyne (Filed: 16/07/2002)
The Greek authorities are in such a "mad rush" to build a museum to persuade the British authorities to return the Elgin Marbles that they are destroying irreplaceable antiquities, one of the country's most eminent archaeologists claimed yesterday. Prof Giorgos Dontas, president of the Archaeological Society of Athens and a former director of the Acropolis, likened the destruction to a "crime" and said the location of the museum was "fatal". His comments, supported by a 300-name petition from Greece's art and science communities, come as demolition workers tear down buildings around the Acropolis and Parthenon to make way for the new museum which, it is hoped, will be ready for the Olympic Games in 2004. Prof Dontas is particularly incensed by the "vandalism" of the remains of an ancient Christian city and baths which are said to date from the Neolithic era to the post-Byzantine period. They are said to be of enormous importance in charting the continuous habitation of Athens, the birthplace of democracy. Prof Dontas said: "This mad rush to try to get everything ready in time for the Athens Olympics is not only impossible, it's also dangerous and destructive. "Valuable antiquities risk being destroyed. The minister of culture and his associates are violating the law. They even risk going to jail. "The selected location for the new Acropolis museum is fatal. What is happening is a crime, the effects of which will only be visible when this museum is half-built and people begin to really understand the magnitude of the mistake." The £55 million Acropolis museum is one of the centrepieces of Greece's preparations for the Games. Designed to rebuff British arguments that the 2,300-year-old marbles, now officially known as the Parthenon Marbles, could not be safely kept in Athens, it features a huge glass case to house the friezes, which have been in Britain for 200 years. But critics claim that the building's location is too sensitive and say its size, bigger than the Parthenon, risks "antagonising" the Acropolis. It could also be something of a white elephant as the British Museum has repeatedly refused to return the sculptures.
Petros Tatoulis, a conservative MP, launched a legal action in the Greek supreme court last week against "those destroying our cultural heritage". Such has been the outcry that, despite a huge army of conservationists and builders at work on the site, the building is unlikely to be finished by 2004. Evangelos Venizelos, the culture minister, has put off the long-awaited laying of the building's foundation stone. However, he rejects criticism of the building and the claims that it will not be finished in time. "Wherever you excavate in Athens you come across antiquities and research has shown that these are not invaluable," he said. "The museum will be built by 2004." Chris Price, deputy chairman of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, based in London, agreed. "In terms of presentation and display this is a brilliant and imaginative solution that ought to satisfy all concerned," he said. But Prof Dontas wants a new site chosen. He said: "It might be temporarily embarrassing but the truth is that there is not a chance in a thousand to have a new museum and a proper exhibition ready in time for the Olympic Games. An absolute minimum of 10 years will be needed." A spokesman for the British Museum said: "Many archaeologists have long felt that the site for the proposed new museum was unsuitable. If the reports of damage to the remains excavated there are accurate we can only share the concerns shown by those in Athens." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Vandals on the Acropolis
(Filed: 16/07/2002)
It took tremendous courage for Professor Giorgos Dontas, president of the Archaeological Society of Athens, to speak out yesterday against his government's plans for a new building on the Acropolis to house the Elgin Marbles. In Greece, it is widely considered tantamount to treason to say anything that might give comfort to those who want the marbles to stay in London in the custody of their rightful owner, the British Museum. Prof Dontas was not speaking lightly, therefore, when he accused his government of criminally destroying priceless antiquities in its "mad rush" to complete the new Acropolis museum in time for the Athens Olympics in 2004. The location chosen for the new building was "fatal", he said. It would not only be impossible to finish the grandiose structure on time, but also be "dangerous and destructive" of antiquities buried on the site. When an archaeologist of Prof Dontas's eminence describes his own culture minister as a vandal, destroying the very heritage that he claims to care so much about, the world should sit up and take notice. Not only do the marbles legally belong in Britain, where they have been looked after for 200 years and admired by millions. They are also a great deal safer here than they would be in the hands of those who are more interested in the politics of the marbles than in their beauty or their place in the history of civilisation. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
State police recover $250,000 in stolen antiques
OAKLAND — Maine State Police recovered more than $250,000 worth of antique guns and other items Friday from a storage building here that allegedly were stolen from a home in Warren. State police Detective Robin Parker said the stolen property includes dozens of guns dating from the Revolutionary and Civil wars, the Morning Sentinel reported. Other items include antique gunpowder flasks, pots, storage trunks, arrowheads, books, baskets and other collectibles. Police declined to identify whom the property was stolen from, or when the theft occurred. The loot recovered Friday is only a portion of what was stolen. “The total loss to the victim is going to be between $400,000 and $500,000, probably,” Parker said. Police said the victim and her late husband had been collecting the items for more than 35 years. Some of the guns are worth more than $30,000 each. Some of the stolen items began surfacing last December in auction houses and on the Internet. Some stolen firearms were sold to gun dealers and others have been tracked to points in Maryland and Connecticut.
“Some of the things have not only left the state, but left the country already, so some things will be unrecoverable,” Parker said. Parker said the owner of the property at one point told him she didn’t think she would ever see the stolen items again. He said many of the items had sentimental value for her and her husband, who had collected them in preparation for their retirement. State police Lt. Dale Lancaster said detectives have suspects in the case, but no charges have been filed. “We have two prime suspects that have been cooperative up to this point of the investigation,” Lancaster said. http://www.bangornews.com/ From globeandmail.com, Thursday, July 11, 2002
Egypt reclaims pharaoh of Niagara Falls
DAWN WALTON
Bill Jamieson figured he knew what he was getting when he bought the collection from a kitschy museum in Niagara Falls, Ont., after the owners decided to retire.
A humpback whale skeleton. Stuffed animals. Some beat-up Egyptian artifacts. Now, almost four years later, the Toronto collector of curiosities could only laugh when he was told that one of his mummies, which he quickly sold to a U.S. museum to finance the Niagara Falls purchase, has been identified as the fabled Egyptian pharaoh Rameses I. The mummy will soon be sent back to Egypt. "I'm the guy who sold Rameses I. That's funny," Mr. Jamieson said yesterday. This week, the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University in Atlanta announced it that would return the mummified corpse, which was taken by tomb robbers and in 1861 wound up at the Niagara Falls Museum. There had long been speculation the mummy was Rameses I, who took the throne in 1293 BC, and ruled for just two years, but became the patriarch of Egypt's 19th dynasty. Officials at Emory promised to return the mummy to Cairo if royal lineage was established. Peter Lacovara, the museum's curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern art, said Egyptian officials are now satisfied of the mummy's blue blood. "There's not one single piece of evidence, but just the aggregate weight of evidence seems to point in that direction," he said. Mummification techniques are consistent with the era. The body was wrapped with its arms crossed -- a sign of royalty. X-ray comparison of the skull and that of Rameses I's son establishes a familial resemblance. Radiocarbon dating places it to Rameses I's rule. Then there is the evidence surrounding the looting of the Deir el-Bahri royal cache of mummies -- the cache from which Rameses I vanished. An investigator discovered that the Niagara Falls mummy was bought from dealers who were selling items from that robbery. "That's the sort of smoking gun that historically associates it with the cache of royal mummies," Dr. Lacovara said. That is also where the mummy's Canadian connection begins as detailed in a recent article in Toronto Life. A Canadian doctor named James Douglas was a customer of the grave robbers linked to the Deir el-Bahri cache. His son shared his interest in Egypt and picked up the mummy through a middle man to the grave robbers in 1860. But that mummy ended up with the son of Thomas Barnett, founder of the Niagara Falls Museum circa 1827, described as Canada's oldest museum. Bankruptcy sent the mummy to the United States for a period, but it ended up back in Niagara Falls in 1958. Gayle Gibson, president of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities and a teacher at the Royal Ontario Museum, has been visiting the mummy since the early 1980s. She fingered him as royalty. The facial structure and the mummification style made her suspect it was someone in the Rameses line. Mr. Jamieson, who fancies himself an amateur anthropologist and whose vast collection includes shrunken heads and stuffed tigers, had also been a frequent visitor to the Niagara Falls Museum. He described it as one of the last remaining "cabinet of curiosities." He had become friendly with the owner, Jacob Sherman, and had asked over the years whether he wanted to trade curiosities. Mr. Sherman always declined. But during a 1998 visit, his then girlfriend, now friend, Danielle Goraski, suggested Mr. Jamieson just buy the museum. When Mr. Jamieson inquired, he recalled that Mr. Sherman replied: Make me an offer. The building was too rich for Mr. Jamieson's blood, but he could afford the contents. He said he cannot disclose the price. But to come up with the money, Mr. Jamieson knew he had to sell the museum's Egyptian mummies and coffins. "Someone said it looked like they went over the Falls," Mr. Jamieson said. "Nobody really looked at it like it was an artifact and it was important. It was more of a curiosity and would sell tickets." He first approached the ROM, but the $2-million (U.S.) price tag was too steep. Emory snapped it up in 1999 and dedicated researchers to study and restore the new acquisition. Ms. Gibson was thrilled to learn her suspicions were correct. But more important, Rameses I will be going home to Cairo once an exhibit in Atlanta ends in 2004. "I think it will be really delightful that he will be back with his family," Ms. Gibson said. "I really do believe that their spirits are there." Mr. Jamieson talks with some sadness about selling the Niagara Falls Museum mummies, but quickly brightens. "It's kind of fun knowing you sold Rameses I and somehow took part in helping him get home," he said. "When I'm old and in Egypt with my grandchildren I'll be able to say 'Hey, I helped get him here.' The whole thing's kind of strange." Visit the globeandmail.com Web Centre, your competitive edge for breaking news stories as they happen. http://www.globeandmail.com