MAY 16, 2003 21:45
The first ever theft occurred at the Kongju National Museum. One National Treasure artifact and three undesignated but highly valued cultural properties, 4 pieces in total, were removed on May 15.
Police asked for cooperation at airports, seaports and customs to prevent the artifacts from being smuggled out of the country. The two burglars in their 30s broke through the entrance of the duty office at Kongju National Museum in Joong-dong, Kongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do at about 10:25pm on May 15. They threatened a Mr. Park (35, researcher), who was on duty at the time with high-voltage stun guns and the other deadly weapons, tying his hands together with duct tape. One of them stood watch while the other broke glass displays on the first floor with the heavy stick. He also broke the door lock leading to the display room from the duty office and took National Treasure no. 247, a bronze statue of Bodhi-sattva. He broke the glass display in another room and stole three other artifacts. These were a `Koryo celadon dish with inlaid patterns` excavated from the Sea in front of Boryong in 1986, and a `Koryo celadon inlaid with chrysanthemums`, excavated from Hadae-ri, Gyaeryong-myeon, Kongju-si in the same year. Park stated: “Two burglars suddenly assaulted me while I was reading a book in the duty office.” That same day, two police officers were on duty in the office (ticketing office) 20 meters away from the duty office in the museum. However, they did not notice anything unusual. It took only 15 minutes for the burglars to get away with their prizes.
Police suspect that the crime was committed by a contract thief who secured an outlet in advance, because any cultural property designated as a National Treasure is impossible to sell on the open market. Considering the fact that the thieves did not enter the second floor exhibition area in which a closed circuit TV (CCTV) was installed, it is presumed that they planned their crime in a professional manner. Park stated that the buglers were both about 170 centimeters tall, in their mid 30s, of slender build, and spoke in Gyeongsang province dialects. According to Park`s statement, police made a composite photo of the one thief who was not wearing a mask and distributed it around the nation. Police also offered 20 million won for any leads as to the whereabouts of the criminals.
http://english.donga.com/
Library's Art Theft Has Others Taking Notice Of Unprotected Art
Edited by Dave Pieklik
After the capture this week of an alleged art thief, many are wondering how the missing painting went unnoticed. And how did it happen? The John Dodgeson Barrow painting of the ship "The Ben Porter," was confiscated by Onondaga County Sheriff's investigators last week, after it was sold at a garage sale for $200. It turns out the painting is actually worth about $45,000. Thomas Dydyk, an employee at the Onondaga County Public Library, was charged with stealing the painting. But the stolen art brought to light the fact many public buildings that aren't museums hold some very valuable works of art which very often are unguarded and not properly cared for. At the Onondaga County courthouse, art expert Joe Caldwell pointed out an example of art that may be at risk of turning up missing. In the Surrogate Court office sits a portrait of an early surrogate done around 1800, and it's considered very valuable. There are other paintings worth significant amounts hanging on the walls around the courthouse, but many are badly in need of care. "You can destroy art work if you're not taking care of it," says Caldwell. But paintings aren't the only valuable art just sitting around. Also at the courthouse is a statue of the biblical character Ruth, carved in Rome in 1871. Caldwell says the statue could probably go for around thirty to $40,000. Caldwell says it's not unusual for libraries or local governments to have valuable artwork, and says the problem is many don't even know what they have. "They pay more attention to pens and pencils...than artwork worth thousands and thousands of dollars," he says.
http://www.wstm.com/
National treasure stolen from museum
Thieves broke into the Gongju National Museum Thursday night walking off with four exhibits, including a national treasure that is more than 1,200 years old, museum officials said yesterday.
A seventh century gilt bronze Buddhist statue from the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC-AD 660) which is listed as a national treasure is missing, along with two celadon dishes from the Goryeo dynasty (913-1392) and a ceramic dish from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).
This is the first time that a national museum has been raided. The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. when two men in black caps stormed into the museum in South Chungcheong Province, threatening a worker on night duty with a knife and an electric shocker. The thieves tied the worker's hands and covered his mouth and eyes with duct tape, before breaking the display window and making off with the exhibits.
The infrared detector installed at the front gate of the museum was turned off and the shutter of the exhibition room was open at the time of the incident.
"The worker turned off the detectors for a routine patrol and the thieves seem to have waited for the moment," said Yi Kun-moo, director of the National Museum of Korea. "Because the museum was scheduled to move to a new building next year, investments to improve security equipment were relatively low."
The security equipment at the Gongju museum includes four CCTVs, 11 VCRs and six infrared detectors. Although details were not released, Yi said the security equipment at the Gongju museum is relatively inferior compared to other state museums.
"We deeply regret that such a shameful incident has happened. We will take proper steps to strengthen security in museums nationwide and do whatever it takes to keep the stolen treasures from slipping out overseas," said Yi. "I urge the thieves to safely return the exhibits back to authorities. There is no statute of limitations on this kind of crime and transactions of the items are banned."
DETROIT (May 16, 2003 9:37 a.m. EDT) - Former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman was released from a federal prison and reported to a halfway house to complete a yearlong sentence for fixing art prices. Taubman, 79, former chairman of Taubman Centers Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, which owns and operates 30 shopping malls in the United States, was picked up in his private jet from the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn. on Thursday, family spokesman Chris Tennyson said.
In December 2001, a New York jury convicted the multi-millionaire of fixing art prices while he was chairman of the art house, Sotheby's Holdings Inc. Taubman is scheduled to be released from the halfway house on June 13. Until then, he is required to return to the facility at night to sleep and be monitored, The Detroit News reported in a Friday story. During the day, Taubman will return to his office in Bloomfield Hills to address development programs at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the College for Creative Studies, both in Detroit, Tennyson said.
Taubman stepped down as chairman of Taubman Centers and Sotheby's last year, though he remains the largest shareholder at both companies. Last October, Simon Property Group Inc. of Indianapolis launched an unsolicited, $1.7-billion bid to acquire Taubman Centers. The takeover battle is being waged in federal court.
http://www.nandotimes.com/
Looted Heritage Back
The Herald (Harare)
THE lower portion of one of the Zimbabwe Birds looted from Great Zimbabwe around 1890 was finally re-united with its upper part after more than 100 years in exile at a colourful ceremony punctuated by traditional song and dance at State House yesterday.
The piece, which is part of a collection of eight birds identified by historical records as an integral part of the ceremony and spirit of Great Zimbabwe, was handed over to President Mugabe by German ambassador Dr Peter Schmidt. President Mugabe then rejoined it with its head amid ululations by guests, who included chiefs, diplomats, Mem-bers of Parliament, Cabinet ministers, historians and war veterans. The Great Zimbabwe birds are the country's most valuable cultural treasures and form the national emblem. The President said their return was cause for celebration because it fitted into the ongoing programme of national identity and restoration. "On behalf of the Government and people of Zimbabwe, I feel privileged and honoured to receive the lower half of one of the soapstone birds from the Great Zimbabwe era which we heartily welcome back home after years of exile which began with its illegal movement from our country between 1889 and 1903.
"Like our land reform programme, today's ceremony allows us to proudly assert ownership over our national resources and treasures. "What makes this day special is the fact that the lower half that was exiled is now back home and firmly and permanently re-united with its top half. Never again shall the bird be severed in two and never again shall any part of the bird find its way to foreign territory," said Cde Mugabe. The lower portion of the bird was looted from the Great Zimbabwe Monument in 1890 and resurfaced in South Africa in 1906 where it was in the possession of Cecil Rhodes. The unknown looters failed to locate the top part of the ill-fated bird, which was later found perched on the balcony of Great Zimbabwe's Western Enclo-sure, facing the Royal Enclosure.
The top part never left the country.
The looted part proved to be a prized treasure and in 1907, Rhodes sold it or presented it as a gift to Karl Theodore George Axenfeld, a missionary of the Berlin Society who in turn sold it to the Royal Prussian Museum for Ethnology in Berlin, Germany, the same year for 500 reich marks Following the occupation of eastern Germany by Soviet forces between 1944 and 1945, the section was looted from the Berlin museum together with other items and was taken to a museum in what was then known as Leningrad, Russia. It was to stay in Leningrad up to the end of the Cold War after which it was then taken to the former East Germany. Upon the reunification of Germany, the portion was moved back to Volkerkunde Museum. In 1997, the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, held an exhibition entitled "Legacies of Stone: Zimbabwe Past and Present". The Belgians had secured the lower half for the exhibition and asked to borrow the top from the Zimbabwe Government for the purpose. President Mugabe attended the exhibition during his trip to Belgium that year and initiated diplomatic efforts to have the looted treasure returned home. Six other Great Zimbabwe birds from the original collection of eight were taken to South Africa.
Five of them, removed officially, were deposited with a museum in Cape Town but they were returned in 1981, a year after the country attained independence, in exchange for a unique collection of bees, wasp and ants. They are in the custody of the Department of National Museums and Monuments. One bird, regarded as looted, is still in South Africa and President Mugabe said he would talk to President Thabo Mbeki so that it would fly back home.
Only one Zimbabwe bird never left the country.
Cde Mugabe said in the run-up to the partition and occupation of Africa, and for several decades afterwards, the appropriation and export of cultural objects perceived to be of artistic or antique value was widely practised by colonial agents and freelance researchers-cum-antiquarians who enjoyed the protection and privileges of European imperialism. "The cultural depredations that took place at Great Zimbabwe need therefore to be seen in the light of this wide perspective. "The entire process of colonial acquisition was a game without rules to the extent that it was typical to argue cynically that the treasure was gotten by 'virtue of conquest." He said the aim of the coloniser was to foist the image of inferiority onto the colonised and that this was to a large extent achieved by teaching Zimbabweans a history that was not theirs and consequently alienating them from their own. The same happened to Ife, a fifteenth century city in south-western Nigeria considered to be holy by the indigenous Yoruba people which was ransacked by the British, resulting in the looting of life-size earthern ware and bronze naturalist castings of human heads which were taken to British museums. Another British military expedition in 1897 ransacked the palace of Benin in West Africa and got away with Benin's prized royal bronze castings. The same degree of plunder of cultural property took place in Ethiopia when the Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, invaded that country in the 1930s before the Second World War. He ordered the removal and shipment to Italy of one of Ethiopia's famous megalithic granite stele monument.
The monument is now being claimed by the Ethiopian government.
Cde Mugabe said to justify these acquisitions, the colonial collectors employed all sorts of hypotheses in order to clothe the cultural material in borrowed Semitic, Egyptian or Western robes. "The most classic example of these attempts to deny Africans their heritage is the Great Zimbabwe monument whose origins were attributed variously to Semites, Egyptians and Arabs. "They said these must be some of the people who built Great Zimbabwe and refused to acknowledge that that was the work of Africans." The President said as late as the 1980s, some authors still argued and convinced certain publishers that it was not possible for Africans to build a civilisation such as the one represented by Great Zimbabwe, Khami and other similar monuments. He said while the 1970 Unesco Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, it had proven difficult, if not almost impossible, for non-western countries to use these international legal instruments for repatriating illegally exported cultural objects. The return of the lower portion of the bird, the President said, demonstrated that the recovery of lost national treasure depended not only on the legal framework of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation convention, but also on the goodwill of the party in possession of the exiled property. He thanked the German government for willingly returning the "sacred relic which will now join the other birds as they rest and watch over our country from Great Zimbabwe". Cde Mugabe said Zimbabwe was ready to share its rich and diverse heritage with the rest of mankind and hoped that visitors from all corners of the world would come to share the beauty and mystery of the country's heritage at Great Zimbabwe and at other places of tourist interest.
Dr Schmidt said Germans were fully aware of the symbolic and emotional value the Zimbabwe birds constitute for the people of Zimbabwe and how important it was for them to bring home all those birds, which had been taken away from Great Zimbabwe. "It is through your personal interest and insistence and through the understanding and generosity of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, who are the legal owners of the fragment, that we today can heal, as it were, the wounds of the past inflicted on this Zimbabwe Bird and can make its broken parts one again," he said. Dr Schmidt said following representations from the German federal government, the Prussia Cultural Heritage Foundation in the year 1999 agreed to restore to Zimbabwe the fragment and on February 1, 2000, signed an agreement to this effect with the Department of National Museums and Monuments. He said in spite of all the vicissitudes it underwent, the bird's lower portion might have suffered a worse fate. "May the two parts of this bird never be separated again and may all past, present and future creations and manifestations of the artistic mind not only in Zimbabwe, but indeed in the whole world always be well protected from destruction, be it accidental or deliberate, and all kinds of unlawful dealings like theft and plunder. "My Government is willing to co-operate with Zimbabwe and all other countries of the world to achieve this noble goal," said Dr Schmidt. The president of the Council of Chiefs, Chief Jonathan Mangwende, welcomed the return of the bird saying it was pleasing to note that this was taking place at a time land was now back in the hands of it rightful owners. The bird was, therefore, landing on the freed land. He said the return of the piece was probably because the bird's spirit (ngozi) was haunting the looters. "Vaive vasingazive kuti kune ngozi. Zvino heinoi ngozi yeshiri. Ndiko kurwadza kwengozi ikoku. (They were not aware of avenging spirits. They could not live with it because of the avenging spirits)," said Chief Mangwende.
The chief said it was high time the country's other artefacts which were looted by foreigners were brought back home. During the hand- over ceremony, State House reverberated to the sounds of mbira music and traditional dance by Chiwoniso Maraire and Mbira Dzenharira.
http://allafrica.com/
IRAQ
Kim Howells Backs Private Bill To Outlaw Trade In Stolen Works Of Art
Culture Minister Kim Howells today confirmed the Government’s backing of Richard Allan’s Private Member’s Bill to outlaw the illicit trade in art and antiquities. The Bill will help choke the trade in Iraqi artefacts stolen during – and following - the war As the Dealing in Cultural Objects Bill – which has all-party as well as Government support – went into Standing Committee, Kim Howells said: “The Government is determined to do whatever it can to help Iraq and its people, and nations around the world - to recover their heritage, their culture and their pride. The Government sees Richard Allan’s Bill as one of the cornerstones of its programme to prevent the illicit trade in looted antiquities, particularly in the UK. “The Iraqi people have finally woken from the nightmare of their recent past. It is imperative that we now do all we can to ensure that - once again - they can appreciate their unique culture, and its place at the heart of the world’s heritage. “
Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6276\6272 Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153 Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200
http://www.culture.gov.uk/
Customs stymies statue smugglers
• Scofflaws continue to steal from Iraq
By Khalid Dalal AMMAN — The Customs Department stymied the smuggling of some statues and other century-old Iraqi artefacts at the eastern border post of Karama, a senior department official said. “The attempt was stopped [yesterday] afternoon when a number of journalists attempted to cross the border on their way to Amman. They were carrying with them statues that date back more than 100 years,” said Department Director General Mahmoud Qteishat.
Other items included a stamp album dating back to the 1950s and a wooden box that was believed to be more than a century old, he added. Since Iraq fell, Qteishat explained, customs officials at the Jordanian-Iraqi border have tightened inspection measures to stop any attempt to smuggle items stolen from Iraqi museums. “Almost everyday, our officials catch something,” he said, adding that all the confiscated items are being kept in the Kingdom until a new government is formed in Iraq. “Then, the items will go back to their original country,” said Qteishat. Tightening procedures at the border came as part of a general call to all personnel manning Jordanian air, land and sea outlets to keep a watchful eye for any attempts to smuggle Iraqi antiquities and manuscripts that were looted in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam's regime last month. An expert in antiquities has been assigned to examine all suspected items at the border with Iraq, according to the official.
In early May, a family album of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was amongst the booty seized by custom officers. On April 19, customs officials confiscated 42 paintings stolen from Iraq's National Museum. In cooperation with the Antiquities Department, Qteishat said his department would continue applying its thorough inspections at all borders to stop attempts to smuggle Iraq's priceless treasures into, or out of, the Kingdom.
UNESCO has urged all countries surrounding Jordan's war-torn neighbour as well as other international bodies concerned with the matter to do their utmost to protect Iraq's archaeological treasures.
http://www.jordantimes.com/
U.S. Recovers 951 Iraq Museum Items
Fri May 16, 2003 12:42 PM ET By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators have recovered 951 items looted from Iraq's National Museum, but have not gained access to central bank vaults thought to contain priceless objects or a secret storage site known only to museum staff, the lead investigator said on Friday.
Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, leader of the team investigating the museum's losses, was unable to give a firm figure of the number of items still missing from the museum's collection following the looting spree in the days after U.S. forces entered Baghdad. In a briefing from Baghdad to reporters at the Pentagon, he said his team of 14 investigators has recovered 951 items, either by going out and retrieving them from various sites in Iraq or through a "no-questions- asked" policy toward anyone returning looted antiquities. Some of the recovered items include one of the oldest known bronze relief bowls, a pottery jar from the 6th millennium BC, and one of the earliest known Sumerian statues, he said. Among the many items still missing, he added, is the Sacred Vase of Warka, a Sumerian limestone bowl engraved with a depiction of the goddess In-nin, dating from 3000 BC. He said this was one of 42 pieces or exhibits stolen from the gallery floor of the museum by looters. He said nine of these stolen items have been recovered, leaving 33 still missing. There are other items missing from other parts of the museum and its storage areas, he said. Bogdanos said the museum kept incomplete records of its holdings and that his investigators have not gained access to key sites where antiquities are thought to be stored. "The majority of the work remaining -- that of tracking down each of these missing pieces -- will likely take years," he said, calling for international cooperation in the effort.
UNDERGROUND VAULTS
Bogdanos said his team has not gained access to two underground vaults in the central bank of Iraq where museum staff says it stashed 15-20 boxes containing 6,744 pieces of gold and jewelry, including the treasure of Nimrod, over the past 13 years. Bogdanos said the museum staff has produced only partial inventories for those items supposedly in the vaults, the accuracy of which cannot be verified until the vaults are opened. "The vaults will be opened at an appropriate time by an appropriate authority. This team doesn't have the authority to open underground vaults of the central bank of Iraq," Bogdanos said. He refused to identify who he meant by an "appropriate authority" and did not give a time table for when the vaults would be opened. Bogdanos added that museum staff have told investigators of the existence of a secret storage location where they have hidden additional items from the museum, but have refused to reveal the location of the site or its contents. "Members of the museum staff have told us that they have sworn on the Koran not to reveal the location of that secret place," said Bogdanos, adding that staff members have suggested that the items there were taken from the museum's display cases. Museum officials, Bogdanos said, "promised to provide the investigators with a complete inventory of the items stored in the secret place by the end of this week."
http://reuters.com/
Experts revise scope of theft from museum
Iraqi curators hid some antiquities
By Tom Hundley Tribune foreign correspondent
May 16, 2003
BAGHDAD -- The preliminary report on the looting of the National Museum of Iraq is expected to be released by the Pentagon on Friday, but after spending several days inspecting the damage, McGuire Gibson, professor of Mesopotamian archeology at the University of Chicago, has reached his own verdict.
"We have dodged a bullet," he said Thursday after walking through the corridors of the ransacked museum where glass from smashed display cases crackles underfoot and ancient Assyrian statues knocked from their pedestals lie on the floor like bodies at a crime scene. "Through some luck and some real preparations by the museum staff, we have saved a lot," Gibson said. The preparations included moving hundred of boxes of museum treasure to safe storage in an air raid shelter several miles from the museum. Luck spared several priceless pieces that were there for the taking but somehow overlooked by looters. An example of the latter is a basalt stele, or carved frieze, that dates to the third millennium B.C. The thieves ignored it. "This chunk of rock is extremely important. We were very worried about it," said Gibson, patting the black stone fondly. "It shows a guy killing a lion with a bow and arrow. It is important because it is one of the earliest examples of someone acting like a king. All through history, this is what kings do. They hunt," he said. The looting of the National Museum in the first days that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime was a story that captured the attention of the world. It initially appeared that tens of thousands of artifacts from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia were missing or destroyed.
`The U.S. never came'
The Bush administration came under sharp international criticism for failing to protect an important piece of the world's cultural patrimony. U.S. commanders had been quick to secure the Ministry of Oil but they neglected to send soldiers to the museum until a week after the worst of the looting had taken place. "The museum authorities didn't have much time, but they got some very important stuff in storage and they completely trusted that the U.S. would secure the museum. They were inside waiting to surrender it, but the U.S. never came," said Gibson, who is also head of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. For the last three weeks, a military and civilian team headed by Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos has been compiling an inventory of what was taken. Its preliminary report is expected to confirm Gibson's conclusion that it was not as bad as it first seemed. The report may also shed light on some tantalizing questions: Why did some of the looters apparently have keys to display cases and storage areas? Why did they take some items of great value but overlook others even more precious in the same area? One of the most valuable items unaccounted for is the Sacred Vase of Warka, a votive bowl made of white limestone dating from 3000 B.C. But there are indications it may turn up, along with some of the museum's other valuable items, in the vaults of the Iraqi Central Bank. The vaults have not been reopened because the basement where they are situated is still flooded, the result of looting, and also because opening the vaults apparently requires legal authorization from the Iraqi government, which at the moment does not exist. According to Bogdanos, 38 pieces, not thousands, are now believed to be missing from the museum's display galleries.
Citizens hid treasures
Some pieces thought to be missing from the galleries had, in fact, not been on display for more than a decade. If they don't turn up in the Central Bank vaults, it is likely they were spirited out of the country years ago by members of the regime. "It's possible," said Bogdanos, a reservist who normally works as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. "But I don't have the mandate to investigate the last 20 years." Other treasures were returned by unidentified citizens who told authorities that they entered the museum with the looters and took certain items to their homes for safekeeping. "They said that if we don't take it, the looters will. They came later and told us that they would return these things when the situation settled down," said Donny George, director of research at the museum. The offer was accepted, no question asked. Among the items returned was a stone slab containing cuneiform inscriptions from Nimrud, a biblical city in northern Iraq. An Abrams tank now guards the front entrance of the National Museum, but thousands of other archeological sites scattered across Iraq are unsecured and, according to Gibson and other experts, the looting continues unabated. "More objects are going out of the country every week than were taken from the museum by the looters," Gibson said. A well-developed black market for stolen antiquities stretches across the Middle East to Europe, North America and the rest of Asia. The collapse of all internal legal authority in Iraq and the absence of regular border controls have provided an unprecedented opportunity to these shady traders.