Archive for November, 2009
Monday, November 30th, 2009
FBI returns smuggled artifacts to Peru, Ecuador
MIAMI — The FBI on Tuesday returned 150 smuggled pre-Columbian artifacts, some more than 3,000 years old, to the governments of Peru and Ecuador, the agency said.
The 153 pieces of jewelry as well as pottery, baskets, sculptures and figurines were found last April in ...
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
In WOII geroofd schilderij teruggevonden in VS
De eigenares van het schilderij "Jong meisje in blauwe jurk", dat tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd geroofd, krijgt het schilderij dinsdag officieel terug. De eigenares staat als 4-jarig meisje op het schilderij afgebeeld.
Het schilderij van de Belgische kunstenaar Anto Carte werd geroofd nadat de ...
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Iran asks UNESCO to help over dispute with Egypt
Iran has asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to protect the remains of a vanished Persian army of the Achaemenid empire in Egypt.
The request was made through a letter by Iran's Cultural Heritage, ...
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Phra Athikansadaeng Premasilo, a 77-year-old abbot of Wat Dong Wai, inspects beheaded Buddha statues. Thai police are promising to get tough on criminals who steal historic artifacts.
Photograph by: Sukree Sukplang, Reuters, Reuters
Thai police promised to get tough with criminals who steal historic artifacts for the international market after a spate ...
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Former director of Spain's Guggenheim museum jailed
(AFP) – 1 day ago
MADRID — The former financial director of Spain's Guggenheim Bilbao has been sentenced to 32 months in jail for stealing nearly half a million euros (750,000 dollars) from the museum's accounts, the court said Friday.
Roberto Cearsolo admitted taking the money ...
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Thai police vow crackdown on Buddha statue thieves
Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:05am EST
By Sukree Sukplang
AYUTHAYA, Thailand (Reuters Life!) - Thai police promised to get tough with criminals who steal historic artifacts for the international market after a spate of thefts from the old capital of Ayuthaya outraged the public in ...
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Thursday, November 26th, 2009
http://human-rights-archaeology.blogspot.com/2009/11/dead-sea-scrolls-collection-history-and.html
The history of the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls is very long and complicated; but since Martin Schøyen is 'one of the few individuals in the world... who owns Dead Sea Scroll material' (Shanks, 2002), their collection history might inform understanding of the Schøyen Collection's history.(1)
Illicit trading, illicit export
The ...
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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
''Conto-Buch für Ali Baba''
Berufungsverfahren um möglichen Kunstdiebstahl dauert länger als geplant
Von Rolf Schlicher
Landau. Am 16. November 1903 legte der Maler Max Slevogt ein Haushaltsbuch an. Auf dem Deckel der braun marmorierten Kladde steht "Conto-Buch für ..." - der Künstler hat handschriftlich hinzugefügt "Ali Baba".
Im Verlag Bruno Cassirer war gerade der ...
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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Southland Museum quiet on thefts
By JARED MORGAN - The Southland Times
A security breach at Southland Museum and Art Gallery has led to the theft of Maori artefacts, but the museum's manager is remaining tightlipped about how the six adzes were taken.
Southland Museum and Art Gallery manager Gael Ramsay yesterday confirmed ...
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Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
November 25, 2009
Fossil theft: One of our dinosaurs is missing
By Cahal Milmo
The illegal trade is increasingly lucrative, with dire results for science
Armed with rock chisels, it took the thief only a few minutes to wipe out 135 million years of history. The fossilised iguanodon footprint was hacked out of the ...
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Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Google to digitise Iraq artefacts
The internet search giant, Google, says 14,000 images of the precious artefacts kept in Iraq's National Museum will be available online from early next year.
Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said the world should see Iraq's rich heritage and contribution to culture.
"The history of the beginning of ...
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Friday, November 20th, 2009
by Elaine Attard
The Zabbar church yesterday lost much more than just the jewels that adorned the parish’s statue of Our Lady of Graces when it was burgled on Saturday night.
Zabbar vice-parish priest Josef Mifsud told The Malta Independent that the jewellery items just could not be valued.
“Those jewels meant much ...
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Friday, November 20th, 2009
Religieuze schatten geroofd in Brugse kathedraal
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Friday, November 20th, 2009
A German court has upheld Iraqi claims over a miniature gold vessel that for the past three years has been at the centre of a tangled dispute involving a Munich auction house, German customs, the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, an archaeologist, and a museum of classical antiquities.
The case, which has ...
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Last Saturday I wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion deploring the archeological fraternity's relentless and exaggerated criticism of the U.S. for allowing damage to Iraq's heritage. From the Baghdad museum to ancient sites around Iraq--most prominently the site of Babylon, where coalition forces had a base--the U.S. and allies were ...
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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
German court orders return of ancient vessel to Iraq
But the gold vase is still believed to be held in Germany pending an appeal
By Lucian Harris | Web only
Published online 18 Nov 09 (News)
A German court has upheld Iraqi claims over a miniature gold vessel that for the past three years ...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
During the 19th session of the Antiquities and Urban Heritage in Arab World Conference, which was held recently in Riyadh, Professor Ali Al Ghaban, vice president of the Saudi Commission of Tourism and Antiquities' (SCTA) Antiquities and Museums Sector, announced that the Kingdom will fight sternly any illicit trafficking of ...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Nov 16, 2009
Reporter: Janet Kim
Email Address: janet.kim@wkyt.com
They're valuable pieces of Kentucky history, but now thousands of state documents will need to be repaired all because of a water leak.
Monday afternoon, workers at the State Library are figuring out just how much damage the leak did this weekend and what it ...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
NEFERTITI, IDIA, TIYE AND OTHERS REVISITED: NEFERTITI IN SPLENDID ISOLATION?
“The history of the bust of Nefertiti shows very clearly how hollow it can sound when Germans and other Europeans refer to legal principles in relation to the “Third World.”
Gert von Paczensky and Herbert Ganslymayr
The intensive and extensive publicity surrounding the ...
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’
By JOHN TIERNEY
Zahi Hawass regards the Rosetta Stone, like so much else, as stolen property languishing in exile. “We own that stone,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking as the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The British Museum does not agree — at ...
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
From Chinwe Ochu in Abuja, 11.16.2009
Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, at the weekend, took delivery of two stolen Nigerian artefacts worth $55, 000 recently handed over to Nigeria by the French Customs in Toulouse, France.
The two monoliths stone artefacts had been traced to the Bakar people of Cross Rivers ...
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Artefacts in national museums found to have been looted by the Nazis can now be returned to their rightful owners, thanks to newly-passed legislation.
The Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Act gives national institutions in England and Scotland the power to return art stolen during the Nazi era.
The bill was introduced earlier ...
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Friday, November 13th, 2009
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Friday, November 13th, 2009
Written by Alan Richardson
Roebourne Art Group sent 220 paintings to Perth last week for a major exhibition at Woodside.
The paintings were stored in a warehouse in Perth.
Last Friday the landlord of the warehouse threw the entire collection (valued at $500,000) onto the street.
He claims the rent was not paid.
It turns ...
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Munch artwork stolen from Oslo art dealership
OSLO — Police say thieves stole a valuable artwork by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch from an Oslo art dealer.
Police spokeswoman Britt Boerve said Friday the thieves stole "Historien" — or "History" — from Nyborgs Kunst, a private art dealership in downtown Oslo, after smashing ...
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Sujetos roban en Museo de la Virgen del Valle y son capturados en alta mar
Esta noticia ha sido leída: 532 veces
Cuando la tranquilidad reinaba en los alrededores de la Basílica Nuestra Señora del Valle del Espíritu Santo, aproximadamente a las dos de la tarde, seis sujetos portando armas de fuego ...
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Artful Sleuthing
Exhibition to celebrate 40 years of hunting down and recovering Italy's art treasures
Italy has a plethora of law enforcement agencies. In fact, there are eight separate ones: Arma dei Carabinieri (military police), Polizia di Stato (state police), Guardia di Finanza (financial and customs police), Polizia Provinciale (provincial police), Polizia ...
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Art thievery usually boggles the mind -- you can't resell a truly valuable piece -- and yet it flourishes. Do you know where it thrives, and where it's rising?
Read full text at http://www.museum-security.org/alrstats.pdf
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
By Anna Hassapi
POLICE ARE investigating what they believe to be the attempted theft of a giant 2,000-year-old standing stone (tripiti), which was been removed from the archaeological site in Pissouri.
Although police later found the stone in a nearby field, it is believed that thieves intended to return with proper equipment to transport ...
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
12 charged after library books worth $87K stolen
By SARAH KARUSH (AP)
WASHINGTON — Authorities threw the book at 12 people Tuesday, accusing them of checking out pricey textbooks from a public library system outside Washington to sell for quick cash.
The Prince George's County Memorial Library System in Maryland lost $87,000 worth ...
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The World’s Most Dangerous Places to Own Art
Published: November 10, 2009
NEW YORK— Are you hoping to have some art stolen? Move to the United Kingdom. That’s the message of a new report by the Art Loss Register (ALR), an industry group that tracks lost and stolen pieces of art. According ...
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Erfahrungsaustausch "Sicherheit in Museen"
Als vor 98 Jahren die Mona Lisa aus dem Louvre gestohlen wurde, belächelte man Kunsträuber oft noch als fehlgeleitete Kunstliebhaber. Heute ist Artnapping hingegen zum knallharten Geschäft geworden.
Dies wurde auf dem 4. Erfahrungsaustausch „Sicherheit in Museen“ in der Münchener Pinakothek der Moderne deutlich, der in Zusammenarbeit von ...
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Maryland Man Admits Stealing LOC Books
Nov. 9, 2009, 5:34 p.m.
By Emily Yehle
Roll Call Staff
A former Maryland resident admitted Monday that he tried to steal hundreds of books from the Library of Congress by pretending to represent a nonprofit called “The Book Exchange.”
Vince Edward Karl Wells, 42, pled guilty to one ...
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Monday, November 9th, 2009
Fake certificates fuel art mart fraud
When the art mart was still hot and there were as many fakes as there were originals, the only way one could be sure that one was not shelling out a small fortune to be landed with a dud was to obtain an authenticity certificate ...
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Latest News Nov 8, 2009
EDO State government wants the United Nations General Assembly to prevail on the British government and other suspected looters to return stolen Benin artifacts.
The government, in an address read by the special adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on art, culture and tourism, Mr ...
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Report about Martin Schøyen that we published august 27, 2002: http://www.museum-security.org/02/103.html
Again Martin Schøyen appears to be involved in dubious antiquities.
A Norwegian Collector Shows BAR His Rare Inscriptions
Hershel Shanks
(Moderator's comment: The Biblical Archaeology Review recently published an extensive article about the Norwegian collector Martin Schøyen. This article completely ignores ...
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
UK scholars linked to 'stolen' bowls of Babylon
Suppressed report reveals archaeological treasures were dug up after Gulf war
A secret report on the chequered history of priceless Aramaic bowls loaned to a leading university has exposed an apparent attempt to cover up UK academic connections to a potentially deadly trade ...
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Friday, November 6th, 2009
Author Allison Hoover Bartlett on the curious psyche of a rare-book thief
By Matthew Battles | November 8, 2009
Rare books provoke passion in collectors, who expend untold time and treasure in their pursuit. Some surrender their scruples, too.
Take the case of John Charles Gilkey, who stole rare volumes, many ...
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