Subject: He Shuzhong, the founder and director of CHW, is selected as the 2004 recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America's Outstanding Public Service Award
He Shuzhong, the founder and director of CHW, is selected as the 2004 recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America's Outstanding Public Service Award
Mr He Shuzhong, the founder and director of CHW, was informed on May 8,2003 by President Jane C.Waldbaum of the Archaeological Institute of America that he had been selected as the 2004 recipient of Outstanding Public Service Award. This award honors an individual, individuals, or entity that has done the most during the past year to promote public understanding of and interest in archaeology. Mr He will be presented the award at the AIA Annual Meeting, which will be held in San Francisco from January 2-5,2004.
Library official accused of stealing painting
5/11/2003 7:04 PM By: Capital News 9 web staff
Police said the head of an organization in charge of raising money for a central New York library system stole a $50,000 painting from the library's main branch and sold it for $200 at a garage sale. Thomas Dydyk, executive director of Friends of the Central Library, pleaded not guilty Saturday to a felony count of third-degree grand larceny. Police said Dydyk removed a painting by John Dodgson Barrow called "Ben Porter" from a vacant office in the Onondaga County library's main building in downtown Syracuse. This past week, Dydyk allegedly sold the painting to the owner of a Skaneateles antiques shop, who recognized it as a valuable Barrow work.
http://www.capitalnews9.com/
Covert Policy in Targeting Palestinian Antiquities
International Press Center (IPC)
Gaza, 11/05/2003
The protection and preservation of the national heritage has been a part of the strategies of the national security for nations, as it gives a deep perspective in history, and enlightens the path towards superiority and development. Thus, the preservation of this heritage was a top priority in many countries. Palestine is rich with ancient monuments and archeological sites that provided documentation of a civilization that extended through history, and built by the Arabs. In an attempt to alter these historical facts, Israel has been keen on erasing history and creating a gap between time and place, as well as defaming the impressions of civilization, and to rip Palestinians the right in their land, culture and antiquities, slamming international legitimacy and human rights treaties against the wall. The occupation authorities' clandestine plot to loot, destroy and promote Palestinian heritage across the world as its own "Jewish" one, to legitimize all its actions, and give itself the right to exist on this occupied land – a plot that has been carefully planned in parallel with the daily aggressions, practiced in an unprecedented way against the Palestinian civilians. These allegations have been continuously confronted, and if several internal or external events have hindered these efforts, they didn't prevent them from moving on with its intended path.
Means adopted by Israel:
Israel uses different means in carrying out its schemes. Mr. Ayman Hassouna, director general of antiquities department in the Palestinian ministry of tourism, pointed out in an interview with IPC that there're several Jewish schools specialized in biblical studies that are trying to fix stories in the Torah (holy book for Jews) and attempt to embed these stories, a thing that ignores several historical periods and sheds more light on others, for mere purpose of interpreting and establishing a history based on the Torah. Mr. Hassouna further said that the expansion of the illegitimate Jewish settlement forms a huge obstacle to experts’ excavations, which led to an increase in the area of the so called "C-territories", and it became more and more difficult to reach the excavation sites, as it involves great risk and the danger of annexation to the settlements. Hassouna expressed hope that the Palestinian National Authority would reach a way, "to be able to complete the needed work in the archeological sites". He pointed out that when the occupation authorities excavate in "settlement” lands, that are in fact occupied territories, don't take anyone’s permits, and it's not possible to notice the work. In addition, the current political situation doesn't permit the Palestinian archeologists to oversee the excavations, or study the results, in an order suitable for knowing what they're dealing with.
Excavations in "Meimas" Site
Mr. Hassouna said that occupation authorities have been excavating in several sites in Gaza Strip during the past years of occupation, including the excavations in "Tal Tneish", and "Meimas", their historical names, near Gaza Harbor, where a Byzantine Church with mosaic floor was discovered during the time of the Egyptian administration of the Strip. He also stated that the Jews claimed it was a Jewish synagogue, and dealt with it as such. During the 1980's they moved the floor of the church from its place, which dismisses their claims of the presence of a synagogue. The architecture pattern and publications indicate that the site is indeed a Christian church with a large area, indicating the presence of a relatively large Christian population that had converted to Christianity during the rule of the Byzantine emperor Constantine, and was called Constantinople on his honor. To further forge historical findings, Dr. Khaled Al Khaldi, head of history and antiquities department in the Islamic University, pointed out that the Israel has, sometimes, carried out obvious forgery campaigns, which were proven wrong by specialized studies. He also mentioned that he revised several studies in this field, and that the forgery is concentrated mostly in the occupied City of Jerusalem. On the method of forgery, Dr. Al Khaldi said that several metal coins and tools with Jewish signs and inscriptions were fabricated and exposed to certain conditions that suit the different historical periods, in order to prove certain aspects about Jewish history. Then, these objects are dumped in several archeological sites, especially in Jerusalem, afterwards tours for students and tourists are organized, in an obvious attempt to reverse the facts. Added to that, the intentional disregard to many other sites that point out to the Arab and Islamic culture contributed to the loss of most of them, as occupation authorities continue to ban the renovation of several ancient antiquities, including historical buildings and mosques, and were left to crumble and fall apart, as in the coastal cities of Haifa and Java.
The occupation authorities illegally excavate sites in the occupied territories, violating international treaties. They give great interest to these sites, in order to prove anything relating to their alleged history. They work systematically and continuously on bulldozing and destroying many archeological sites, especially in the West Bank, in which it has reached grave levels during the present Intifada, mainly what happened recently in the city of Nablus, where destruction, shelling and demolition of hundreds of old houses, shops and buildings were concentrated on the antique neighborhood of Al Kasaba. Furthermore, the occupation forcibly seizes lands that have archeological sites of strategic importance in the West Bank and Gaza, using lame security pretexts. The strict siege imposed by the occupying forces hinders the passage of staff and excavation equipment.
Legal point of view
The excavations and digging operations by the occupation authorities in 1967 occupied territories have violated international law. The La Haye agreement in 1907 included articles protecting private and public cultural properties. The 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention prevents occupying forces from confiscating or destroying any cultural properties, whether public or private individuals or institutions in the occupied lands. The occupied forces have also violated the La Haye 1954 agreement, UNESCO 1956 recommendations, and the code of ethics agreement, issued by the international museum council, all of which included articles related to this issue.
Efforts and possibilities
In addition to the occupation's efforts in erasing history of Arabs and Muslims from this land, the preservation and protection of antiquities faces many obstacles – many of which caused by the occupation, on domestic level. It wasn't possible to preserve the heritage during the past 40 years, because a national government didn't exist. After the establishment of a Palestinian National Authority on the lands that the occupation forces withdrew from, according to the Oslo agreement, signed by both parties in 1993, the ministry of tourism was established to take care of the heritage, and during the period that witnessed relative stability, work have been in steady progress towards the preservation of antiquities and archeological sites. The work faced several difficulties during the past time. Although there was an abundance of archeological material, but the lack of funding hindered the finishing of the work by the experts. Mr. Hassouna pointed out that the urban construction movement hinders excavations in the archeological sites. In addition, the present archeological material need a national museum, which is something that hasn't been done until now, although a complete project for this purpose is available and proper space is also provided, but the ministry hasn't received any response for the funding requests they submitted for the execution of the project. Hassouna stressed on the importance of cooperation between associations and ministries interested in preserving national heritage, and to support the development and Palestinian history awareness projects, which will positively reflect on the cultural and economic aspects, as these archeological sites may be used to promote tourism, after being properly developed in the forms of profit-making projects. In addition to that, they will contribute to introduce the common people to the civilization of their ancestors, especially in the light of having a national museum, in which the most important antiquities that indicate to the depth of this civilization are kept in. Hassouna also added that certain halls are present to exhibit specimens of antiquities in the cities of Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir El Balah, but they don't act as a central national museum, and stressed on the need for drafting a law protecting Palestinian heritage under occupation.
Hard Work
About protecting antiquities, Mr. Hassouna said that the work of the antiquities department is currently concentrated in several sites, due to the political and security conditions in them, in addition to the continued excavation and renovation work in the other sites, which comes in line with the documentation and historical data collection and recording, to avoid having it lost. He also mentioned that they're cooperating with several associations, as there're several specialized cadres of the ministry studying some sites, and the ministry is trying as much as possible to help history and archeology students in finding the information they require for their researches. He pointed out that in order to protect the antiquities; the ministry cooperated with UNESCO to enlist several archeological sites in Palestine in UNESCO's "World Heritage" list. In addition, cooperation with several international organizations has been made to renovate a number of archeological sites in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hassouna called on academic institutions to concentrate on the archeology departments, especially in old and the Canaanite periods, which are included in the conflict with the Israeli side. He also called on send archeology students abroad to study these periods, which will positively reflect on the history of Palestine studies, and rebut the Israeli allegations concerning it. Dr. Al Khaldi said that the department of history and antiquities encourages its students to enroll and deeply study this major, in order to help understand the history of Palestine, and rebut any allegations the occupier might have, which needs great efforts and cooperation between the official and civil institutions, because antiquities are a national wealth for all the Palestinian people, and because of that, the role of academic institutions in this field is a major one; as they graduate cadres capable of finding historical facts in light of the conflict with the occupation.
In addition, their educational role is not less important, even if it was concentrated in the beginning on the students of archeology, but there're many thoughts about progressing in this field, such as sending students abroad, holding seminars and special courses, and even establishing museums –not in the same magnitude as having a national museum, inside these academic institutions, as in other countries. The department have prepared a university museum, and is waiting for the university's approval. About the cooperation between the department and the ministry of antiquities, Dr. Al Khaldi said that cadres from the ministry are currently studying in the department, as well as several experts in the ministry have participated in putting the curriculum for the department, to align with the curriculums of the other academic institutions abroad. The department also organizes tours for its students to the archeological sites in cooperation with the ministry, as a part of the practical part of its curriculum, or as an extra-curricular activity to expand the knowledge of students in their field of expertise. As an initiative for preserving national heritage, the faculty of architecture in the university has established "the Center for Heritage Architecture" in the beginning of the year 2000. The center has worked since its establishing on renovating and rehabilitating several archeological sites and buildings in Gaza Strip. The center is dependent on local workforce in its task, and tryes to develop its abilities in order to preserve all the archeological sites present. The center's first task is renovation of "Al Samra" public bath in Gaza City, and is currently renovating several neighborhoods in the city, sponsored by international organizations, and in cooperation with local and official institutions.
Conclusion:
This proves that there's a systematic Israeli attack, targeting land and history in parallel with its war on the Palestinians. The total war that the Palestinian people are up against, which aims to uproot it from the homeland, based on the Zionist saying "A land without nation for a nation without land". This indeed requires a hard effort to stop this attack, which requires a national and popular cooperation on all levels in a way that guarantees the right of the Palestinian people in its land, and the preservation of its history and stolen heritage that extends throughout the ages, in spite of occupation's attempts.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ From: "Sharon Flescher"
Subject: Upcoming IFAR Programs on Holocaust Art Restitution and on Camille Pissarro
Cpprot readers may be interested in 2 special IFAR EVENINGS organized by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR).
Tuesday, May 27, 2003, 6:30- 8:30 p.m.
Challenges and Discoveries in the Art of Camille Pissarro:The New Catalogue Raisonné Speakers: Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts Joachim Pissarro, great-grandson of Camille Pissarro, and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, great, great granddaughter of Paul Durand-Ruel, pioneering Impressionist art dealer, have spent the last 9 years working on the new catalogue raisonne of Pissarro's paintings. Their 3-volume study will be published later this year. The IFAR talk is the first public opportunity to learn about their discoveries. Q&A and a reception in The Frick Collection's Garden Court follows the talk.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003; 6:30- 8:30 p.m.
"Art, Gold, and Slave Labor: The U.S. Government's Efforts on Behalf of Holocaust Victims" Speaker: Stuart E. Eizenstat, Under Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of the Treasure in the Clinton Administration; Head, U.S. Delegation to the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, 1998 Mr. Eizenstat will discuss the U.S. Government's behind-the-scenes efforts at negotiating settlements for Holocaust victims. Q&A and reception follows the talk.
Programs are open to the public. Reservations with pre-payment to IFAR required. Admission is free for IFAR Members/Supporters, $25 for the general public, and reduced for IFAR Journal subscribers and full-time students. See IFAR website (http://www.ifar.org) for more information and reservation form or call IFAR at (212) 391-6234. Edited versions of the programs will be published in a subsequent issue of IFAR Journal. For those not familiar with us, IFAR is a not-for-profit educational and research organization dedicated to integrity in the visual arts. We are concerned primarily with issues of authenticity, ownership, art law and ethics.
Sincerely,
Sharon Flescher, Executive Director IFAR
Former State Curator Found Guilty in Artifact Theft Associated Press
David Wooley was convicted of stealing a 12-inch bear clan carving from an American Indian museum.
It still hasn't been recovered, but he'll have to serve the sentence after he finishes his 15-year prison term for stealing Indian artifacts from the society's museum. The 2001 conviction stems from his time as curator. Wooley's attorney had asked that he be allowed to serve the two sentences concurrently. He says the 57-year-old might not survive prison.
A judge rejected that request.
http://www.wsaw.com/
The Art Newspaper.com
http://www.theartnewspaper.com
This week's top stories:
A MUSEUM TO ILLUMINATE OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE
When Neil MacGregor took over as director of the British Museum (BM) last August, everyone seemed to be asking the same question: why should anyone want to move from the highly successful National Gallery to a vast museum in the midst of a dire financial crisis? http://81.112.115.148/allemandi/TAN/news/article.asp?idart=11040
TERCENTENARY OF ST PETERSBURG: PRESIDENT PUTIN GIVES HIS CITY PLENTY TO CELEBRATE
FROM £1,000 TO £10 MILLION IN TWO YEARS FOR NEWLY DISCOVERED BLAKE WATERCOLOURS
A magnificent portfolio of 19 newly discovered Blake watercolours is set to leave the UK. The Art Newspaper can reveal that an export licence application will be made for the original illustrations to Robert Blair’s poem “The grave”, with a proposed valuation which might be as much as £10 million. http://81.112.115.148/allemandi/TAN/news/article.asp?idart=11037
OUTBACK BENEDICTINES ADOPT CULTURAL BUSINESS METHODS
“Your drawing is much better than ours.”: So said Hugo Chapman of the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum, in 1999, when confronted with a tempera study of a head from Raphael’s workshop, probably by Giulio Romano. This head of an apostle is notable not only for its quality but also for its ownership: the community of Benedictine monks of New Norcia, western Australia, which was set up as a Catholic mission by Spain in 1846. http://81.112.115.148/allemandi/TAN/news/article.asp?idart=11031
RENOIR REALLY DID LOOK LIKE AN ARTISTE
On a cinema screen, an elderly painter squints at the trees beyond his easel, mixes a paint, and then puts brush to canvas. Who is it? None other than Claude Monet, in 1914. The Artists on Film Trust is responsible for gathering this and any other footage of artists at work, a virtually unknown body of art historical sources. http://81.112.115.148/allemandi/TAN/news/article.asp?idart=11030
Anna Somers Cocks, Editor contact@theartnewspaper.com
The Art Newspaper 70 South Lambeth Road London SW8 1RL UK tel +44(0)207 735 3331 fax +44(0)207 735 3332 http://81.112.115.148
IRAQ
Art world gives tomb raiders the cold shoulder
By Antony Thorncroft in London
The looters who rampaged through Baghdad's National Museum on April 10, stealing many of its 170,000 artifacts from the great civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia, will find that taking the objects was the easy part. Selling such fully catalogued antiquities will be a daunting task. The international museum world, auction houses, and dealers in antiquities have been quick to unite against the despoliation, issuing statements pledging their full support in returning any suspect objects that come their way and backing an amnesty in the hope that thieves will not destroy their bounty in frustration. The greatest treasure, the Warka vase of the 3rd millennium BC, was recovered this week by US forces, and although some collectors in the countries bordering Iraq might pay low sums for antiquities they can never exhibit or sell, the chances of an important work surfacing in Europe or North America are negligible. In the past 10 years the antiquities trade has cleaned up its act. Until the 1980s many ancient artifacts that had been illegally smuggled out of Italy, Greece, or Egypt - the sources of the most prized treasures - escaped the scrutiny of museum curators. Tomb robbers made a good living digging up Attic vases, buried statuary, or graveyard artifacts and exporting them, mainly through Switzerland, to dealers in London, Brussels, Paris and New York.
But tighter national heritage laws and more international co-operation have greatly reduced, although not totally eliminated, the traffic. Today, a member of the Antiquities Dealers Association in the UK - where much of the loot has surfaced - must show the provenance of any object in stock valued at more than £2,000 ($3,120). James Ede, of Charles Ede, the London dealer, is pushing the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art, of which he is chairman, to lower its validation criterion below the current £10,000 mark. If any trader feels like accepting suspect goods, the experience of Frederick Schulz, a leading New York dealer currently facing prison for violating the National Stolen Property Act, will have had a sobering effect. Auction houses, too, are equally circumspect. Since 1995, when it was caught offering illegally exported goods, Sotheby's has stopped holding general auctions of antiquities in London. Christie's and Bonhams ensure their catalogues are circulated to specialists and the lots checked by the Art Loss Register, which traces stolen antiques. The antiquities trade is well aware that the events in Baghdad could be bad for business: hence the speedy declaration that it is now squeaky clean. In practice, objects from ancient Iraq are not a big part of the business; most of the greatest treasures from the region are in museums. However, there is a brisk trade in Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals of the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC, which can be acquired for less than £1,000. Objects in perfect condition can make more. Bonhams' expert Joanna van der Lande was offered a Sumerian statue dating from around 2500 BC last week, just the kind of object that might have been in Baghdad's museum. Fortunately, the owner could provide a well documented provenance so it is in Bonhams auction on Wednesday next week. On Tuesday, Christie's holds its early summer sale with the great majority of the 500 lots, including tablets and cylinders from ancient Iraq, estimated at well under £5,000. The sale also offers a large private collection of ancient gems, especially seals and scarabs later set as rings, many of which could sell for less than £1,000.
The attraction of antiquities is that, although the finest objects are steadily rising in value (the Jenkins Venus, a Roman marble statue of around 100 AD, sold at Christie's last year for a record £8m) most are modestly priced - which is bad news for any Iraqi Ba'ath party officials who saw antiquities as their pension fund.
http://news.ft.com/
Museum staff used secret hiding places to safeguard artefacts
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
IT WAS spoken of as one of the great outrages of the war in Iraq, a crime against humanity in general, an affront to civilisation and proof positive that the United States was a nation of barbarians who cared nothing for the culture of the country they had invaded.
As the US forces rolled into the Iraqi capital, thousands of irreplaceable artefacts were said to have been stolen from the National Museum of Baghdad by looters who destroyed what they could not carry. Academics and cultural commentators lambasted the US authorities for standing by while one of the Middle East’s leading archaeological collections was ransacked. Thirty of the world’s most eminent cultural experts met in Paris to discuss what could be done. Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, a Tory peer and a leading archaeologist, said it was little short of disgraceful.
But yesterday, it emerged that many of the priceless artefacts may not have been stolen at all, but moved to vaults by museum staff before the start of the war to safeguard them from thieves and coalition bombing. The US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that it appeared that far fewer items were missing than had originally been feared. Others which had been stolen, including almost 40,000 manuscripts and 700 artefacts, had since been recovered, it said. Among the artefacts handed in were a clay pot dating back to 5000BC and an inscribed cornerstone from King Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh-century BC Babylon palace. Establishing the truth about what is really missing has been made more difficult by the lack of cooperation between the US authorities and the museum curators, who have been reluctant to produce a comprehensive list explaining where each item had been stored. The situation has been further complicated by suspicions among US investigators that some museum staff may have been implicated in the organised theft of a number of high-value items. The US attorney general, John Ashcroft, suggested the looters included criminals who knew what they were looking for, and where to find it. Other US officials have pointed the finger at museum staff. Although looters did get into the main parts of the museum, it has emerged that many, if not all, the display cases had been emptied before the start of the war, with the most valuable items removed to safe hiding places. There are suggestions that many artefacts were stored in vaults under the headquarters of the city’s Central Bank of Iraq. Many of those items have now been recovered. .
Appeals to the looters who did make off with genuine artefacts have also had some effect. One person returned a box of manuscripts and parchments. Another brought back 46 antiquities, including a vase he claimed was 7,000 years old. US customs agents tracked down another ten pieces, including a broken statue of an Assyrian king dating back to 900 BC.
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/
Lost artifacts returning to their rightful owners
9th century B.C. statue, chest of valuable manuscripts among items recovered, Customs says
By Guy Gugliotta Washington Post
Thursday, May 08, 2003 - WASHINGTON -- U.S. Customs agents announced Wednesday that investigators, working with military officials and Iraqi authorities, have recovered about 700 artifacts and located 39,400 manuscripts that went missing from Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities during chaos and looting that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
A Homeland Security Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said the re- covered artifacts include the broken statue of an Assyrian from the 9th century B.C. and a chest filled with valuable manuscripts and parchments. The agency, which is working from an inventory of losses during last month's thefts, said that some high value items apparently were stolen from vaults where museum staff had stored them for safekeeping. So far, Iraqi authorities have identified 38 missing items classified as high value, Boyd said. In all, the museum in downtown Baghdad was believed to have held more than 170,000 items spanning 5,500 years of Mesopotamian civilization. A statement from Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its agents with U.S. Forces during the Iraq conflict opened an investigation at the National Museum as soon as they heard news of the looting. Boyd said investigators started receiving miss-ing artifacts after they launch-ed a public campaign promising rewards and amnesty for returns. "We're getting leads now on other items turning up at borders," Boyd said. The bureau is also investigating reports of artifacts showing up in foreign countries or being offered for sale on the black market in Iraq. The early efforts yielded 10 pieces that included the Assyrian statue and an ancient bronze bas-relief bowl, Boyd said. A second person relinquished a chest filled with valuable manuscripts and parch-ments, and a third handed in 46 stolen antiquities.
The statement said agents also learned that large numbers of missing artifacts had been stored in vaults below the musuem and apart from it. While this information has been reported before, Boyd said some of the museum's vaults were secret. These were breached by agents and U.S. military personnel, the state-ment said, and many more objects were recovered, including clay pots, stone burial chambers, cuneiform cylinder seals, amulets and coins, Boyd said. The statement said other important items known to have been placed in the vaults were stolen, an indication of possible complicity by the museum staff. Reports of thefts before the looting started and the small number of documented losses have muted some of the public outcry against U.S. forces, who were criticized for standing idle while mobs invaded the museum. Boyd said, however, that "we believe that there is more out there," and noted that the museum did not have a computerized inventory. Nevertheless, Joseph Collins, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, welcomed news of the recoveries. Collins added that "without making any comments on the things that led to this situation," he hoped that "we'll be leaving the system in better shape than when it started."
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/
Italy battles to rescue Iraqi antiquities
By Shasta Darlington
ROME, May 11 (Reuters) - Italy, armed with an arsenal of specialised art cops, archaeologists and some of the world's top restorers, wants to be on the front line in the battle to rescue Iraq's shattered cultural heritage.
"We have the personnel and the specialists that others don't have," said Giuseppe Proietti, head of archaeology for Italy's Culture Ministry, after a week-long trip to Baghdad. Italy boasts the world's oldest police force dedicated solely to combating the illicit art trade and has years of experience restoring ancient artefacts destroyed by bombs in World War Two and more recently by earthquakes, he said. "We have a plan, and we are ready to implement it as soon as we get approval from the interim government, the Americans." The National Museum in Baghdad, which housed thousands of artefacts tracing the development of ancient Mesopotamia, and other sites were sacked in a wave of looting that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government. Italy pledged one million euros ($1.15 million) to help rescue Iraq's damaged heritage and said it would use proceeds from a benefit concert at the Colosseum by Paul McCartney on Saturday night to fund an archaeological mission to help recover the looted antiquities. The carabinieri's cultural heritage unit, which is already working with Interpol to track down the artefacts, has readied a small team of art sleuths to go into Baghdad. An Italian mission of archaeologists and art restorers, many of whom were working in Iraq until January, is also poised to head back to the city to assess and repair damage. "We have a lot of experience restoring our sites in the wake of earthquakes, which will be useful since the effects of war are very similar," said Proietti.
But before the big works can get off the ground, he said Italy will try to help Iraqi colleagues restore basic services. "Our very first step will be making offices and laboratories operational. It's hard to catalogue stolen art when you don't have computers, phones or even doors and windows." The 250-strong force of art police headed up efforts to compile a list of objects looted from regional Iraqi museums during the 1991 Gulf War and is helping prepare a new databank. It is believed that the Vase of Uruk and Harp of Ur, dating back to between 3,00 and 2,500 BC, are among the missing items. "Out of necessity, Italy's carabinieri know the twists and turns of the illegal network like nobody else," Rodolfo Ronconi, head of Interpol's Italian unit, said after an international conference on looting in Iraq last week in Lyon. "That's why Rome was asked to organise the next meeting."
http://www.alertnet.org/
Colonel in Search for Iraqi Antiquities
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--He's a ``drop-and-give-me-20'' Marine with a Master's--in classical studies. He's an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He has crisscrossed the planet to pursue criminal suspects, from Sean ``P. Diddy'' Combs to Osama bin Laden.
Now, in the blistering heat of postwar Iraq, Col. Matthew Bogdanos--infantryman, scholar, amateur boxer and one-time waiter at his father's Greek restaurant--has found the case that draws on all his wide-ranging expertise: tracking down the looted treasures from Iraq's national museum. As head of the U.S. team investigating the plunder, he has led military-style raids to retrieve priceless antiquities, then used his classics background to identify some of civilization's earliest artifacts. But when developing a source, he finds himself asking the same questions as when he's in the district attorney's office--a job to which he'll return when his stint on active duty ends. One Iraqi source even asked him for cab fare--the same euphemism used by his American drug informants when they want payment for information. ``Talk about flashbacks,'' Bogdanos, 46, said in the dusty museum library now doing double duty as his team's command center and home in Iraq. Bogdanos makes his way through postwar Baghdad quoting everyone from Cicero to samurais. He seems to operate at twice the speed of the world around him and wants to talk about all he's done--then worries about seeming vain. Returning from a raid, he drops to the ground to do three sets of push-ups, 135 in all, before answering questions--out of breath from the exertion--from the steady stream of journalists turning up at the museum gates. Bogdanos grew up in New York's lower Manhattan, where his family owned a Greek restaurant. From age 7, he worked with his twin brother taking turns busing tables and doing school work.
``Table No. 1 at my Dad's old restaurant was the homework table,'' he said. ``People who were really good at a subject would get a glass of wine or a baklava on the house for helping us with our homework.'' Today he practices law before judges and among attorneys who knew him then--and maybe helped him with his math homework. He never thought he'd be one of them. ``A lawyer was the guy who came in, ordered steak and didn't leave a good tip,'' he said. He attributes his lifelong interest in the classics to his parents, who had him reading Homer's ``Iliad'' and ``The Odyssey'' at 12. ``It was `The Iliad' which did it,'' he says. ```The Odyssey' is the greatest adventure story ever told, but there is no comparison to the sense of honor and duty in `The Iliad'.'' It's clear that those ideas mean a lot to him. But asked why he enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20, he has but one reply: ``Because it's the Marines.'' Despite his parents' emphasis on education, Bogdanos never planned on college. He dreamed of becoming a professional boxer. But his three brothers followed their father's footsteps into the restaurant business, and Bogdanos figured he would do the same.
``The Marine Corps changed that,'' he says.
The Marine recruiter persuaded him to apply to Columbia University. Not one to do things halfway, Bogdanos followed a bachelor's degree in classical studies with a master's in the same field and a law degree. In law school, he interned with the late judge Harold Rothwax, a New York legend of sharp tongue and tough sentences. ``From the moment I stepped in his courtroom, I knew that's what I wanted to do,'' Bogdanos said. ``You would have to take me out kicking and screaming.'' After two years as a Marine lawyer, he left active duty in 1988. He joined the district attorney's office the same day. While remaining in the Marine reserves, he has prosecuted subway muggers and teenage killers, but no case has drawn such sustained attention as Combs' 14-month trial in a 1999 nightclub shooting. The rap impresario--then ``Puff Daddy,'' now ``P. Diddy''--was acquitted of weapons and bribery charges. Bogdanos readily brings up his involvement in the case, only to express his distaste at the media frenzy it produced. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he was called up to join the forces hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. While he wouldn't talk details, his efforts won him a Bronze Star and a promotion. His commitment was understandable. ``I lost a lot of friends that day,'' he said, ``and that's all I'm going to say about that.''
He was similarly reticent about his family, though he allows that his lengthy assignments have made him miss them deeply. ``I have missed my daughter's birthday the last two years,'' he said. Then emotion crosses his face and he asks to change the subject. Bogdanos was already in Iraq searching for banned weapons and investigating terrorist funding when he was enlisted to lead an investigation into the disappearance of artifacts from Iraq's national collection during the looting after Saddam Hussein's ouster. Finding the golden harp from the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in pieces on the floor of the museum's restoration room was ``heart-rending,'' he says. But every day, more artifacts are returned--often by strangers who turn up at the museum's gates and hand things back no questions asked. ``Just seeing the stuff is really remarkable,'' he said. ``The recovery of a single piece--the oldest recovered bronze bowl in bas relief, or a single pot with burned red ochre on it--that's worth it.''