July 18, 1997

- Russian minister criticises Bonn on art booty
- War criminal Tadic's art pleases London diners
- Albania violence threatens treasured ancient city
- 'Betrayed' antiques expert awarded £200,000
- Britain freezes £16m art sale to America (The Getty Museum is angry over an export delay on a Poussin from Sudeley Castle)
- The Unfinished History of the Aksum Obelisk Return

  
Russian minister criticises Bonn on art booty

BONN, July 16 (Reuter) - Russia's Culture Minister Yevgeny Sidorov told a German weekly magazine Moscow would not return war booty seized from Nazi Germany until Bonn did more to compensate Russia for wartime looting and destruction.
``Why should Russia give it back?'' Sidorov asked in an interview published in Stern and released ahead of publication on Thursday. ``They (the Germans) destroyed wonderful old cities like Smolensk and St Petersberg. Now they keep saying 'Give us back our art treasures'.
``Germans carried off wagon-loads of pictures, frescos, gold and marble. After the war the Americans took much of that,'' he said. ``Why don't the Germans make a serious attempt to buy back that art and give it back to us?''
Russia's upper and lower houses of parliament have voted in favour of a bill that would prevent Moscow returning ``trophy art'' seized by the Red Army at the end of World War Two mainly from Germany, but President Boris Yelsin has vetoed the law.
Germany, Russia's biggest trading partner and creditor, wants Moscow to return a vast hoard including a rare Gutenberg bible, gold artefacts supposedly from the site of ancient Troy and paintings by Claude Monet and Henri Matisse.
Sidorov said the issue of returning the treasures could have been resolved a few years ago if Germany had offered gestures of reconciliation, such helping to rebuild a church or museum.
Asked if Bonn had done too little to settle the row, Sidorov replied: ``It is not only doing too little, but nothing.''
Many Russians say Moscow should hold on to the seized artwork as compensation for Nazi Germany's destruction of Russian cultural treasures and the suffering of the Soviet Union, which lost 27 million citizens in the war.
But Yeltsin, who values close political and economic ties with Germany and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, has promise to return the treasure.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
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 War criminal Tadic's art pleases London diners

 By Catherine Bremer
 LONDON (Reuter) - As judges in The Hague sentenced Bosnian Serb Dusan Tadic to 20 years in jail for war crimes, diners at a London restaurant were admiring a collection of paintings he completed in his prison cell while awaiting his fate.
 The 20 paintings, ranging from strong portraits in oils to abstract watercolors, cast a new light on the man found guilty Monday of taking part in a vicious ``ethnic cleansing'' campaign against Muslims during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia.
 ``A person who paints like this can't possibly be the person they have made him out to be,'' said Serbian-born Leyla Cunningham, who jointly owns the Charterhouse restaurant with her brother. ``Personally, I've never come across a violent artist.''
 Watery mauve and blue abstracts, bringing to mind the work of Picasso and Cezanne, portray Tadic's days behind bars in The Hague as he awaited sentence.
 One shows a naked man pressed against the wall of his bare cell. In another, a man sits on a prison bench, his head in his hands.
 Tadic, 41, a former police reservist nicknamed ``Dusko'' was found guilty on 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He received the heaviest sentence, of 20 years, under an umbrella persecution charge covering beatings, torture and two brutal murders of Bosnian Muslims.
 Tadic has consistently denied the charges and his lawyers have lodged an appeal.
 Less than 80 people went to see the exhibition this weekend at the Mediterranean style restaurant which is tucked away in a leafy square in the financial City of London.
 Only two paintings were sold, both to English buyers.
 The $617 work, ``Dr Gow + Serbs'' shows blood coming out of a globe and pouring through the fingers of two outstretched hands. An abstract canvas packed with color, ``Drama at the Hague,'' also found a buyer.
 Guards at the U.N. prison supplied Tadic with painting materials when they noticed his talent. Tadic's lawyer, a regular customer at the London restaurant, persuaded the owners to display the paintings.
 Other works include portraits of Tadic's wife and two daughters as well as three self-portraits.
 REUTER
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Albania violence threatens treasured ancient city

(We have reported before about the city of Butrint on March 25, 1997. You can read this report at: http://museum-security.org/artcrime4.html#1)
Considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Balkans, Butrint boasts layer upon layer of civilization, from the Bronze Age to the early 1800s.
Butrint, Albania (Reuters; via ArtDaily)
By Dina Kyriakidou
The ancient city of Butrint, a unique Albanian landmark treasured for its versatile archaeological finds, may never recover from the violence that has gripped the poor Balkan country for months. Bandits have wrecked and looted its precious artifacts while the constant rattle of machine-gun fire has kept archaeologists from digging its sprawling, lake-front grounds this summer.
"There was so much pointless vandalism, it could take years to repeat our work and the site may never recover," Greek archaeologist Catherine Hadzis, who has excavated at Butrint since 1991, told Reuters in Athens.
A 20-km (12-mile) drive from the port of Sarande, past desolate farms and abandoned factories, Butrint is set on a small green peninsula between Lake Butrint and the straits of Corfu, a natural fortress almost completely surrounded by water.
According to legend, the city known in ancient times as Buthrotos was founded by fleeing Trojans after the fall of Troy.
Considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Balkans, Butrint boasts layer upon layer of civilization, from the Bronze Age to the early 1800s.
Site at the mercy of bandits
A unique park of lush vegetation strewn with ancient ruins, it has attracted the patronage of Lords Rothschild and Sainsbury, who set up a foundation in 1994 to help explore its rich history and preserve its unspoiled natural setting.
But the violence that erupted in this impoverished Balkan country in March put a halt on excavations and left the site at the mercy of bandits.
Albania was plunged into anarchy after the crash of shady pyramid investment schemes that left hundreds of thousands destitute.
Gunmen forced their way through the gates, held the guards at gun point and looted the site, said Telemak Llakana, an official from the Albanian Institute of Monuments.
"The museum at the top of the acropolis was looted, everything that could be transported was taken," he said. "They even took the pump we installed to empty the water from the theater."
Now frogs and toads have returned to their pool in the body of the Greco-Roman amphitheater where the orator Cicero might have sat to watch a play and ivy has began to cover the chiseled marble blocks of the fortress walls.
"Our storeroom was raided. Figurines, sculptures and pottery were stolen and hundreds of carefully recorded potsherds and pieces of marble were wrecked," said Hadzis, whose international team has been digging on the hilltop acropolis.
Still exploratory work for several generations
Apart from an excavation by Italians in the 1930s, the site was left largely unexplored and could provide work for several generations of archaeologists, Llakana said.
During Albania's 45 years of isolation under communist dictator Enver Hoxha there was little excavation carried out in Butrint, but even the collapse of the regime in 1990 did not prompt a flurry of digging.
"The negative attitude towards cooperation with foreigners did not change quickly enough, making it difficult for foreign missions to work here," Llakana added.
At the site churches intermingle with temples, baths and gymnasiums. A third century BC temple of the Greek god Asclepius was built on what were believed to be healing springs and brides drew their bath water from an early Christian well.
A British team excavating the site's Byzantine period unveiled a rare mosaic floor in an early Christian baptistery, depicting stags and peacocks drinking water from flowing fountains.
A water cult seems to have prevailed through the centuries and religions that left their mark on this obscure spot in the Balkans, which was once a major pre-historic trading center and an important Roman city set next to a rich lagoon.
Pottery finds show trading history
Hadzis' most important discovery was Bronze Age pottery from various Greek cities, indicating Butrint was a flourishing trading center long before originally thought.
"We found pottery dating to 1200 BC, stretching the city's history back several hundred years," she said. "Before our dig we had evidence back to 800 BC."
A large Byzantine Basilica believed to have been visited by the Emperor Justinian, built within the ancient acropolis walls, overlooks the mouth of the channel where Ali Pasha of Tepelene built a castle in 1807.
The lush vegetation and abundant water that give Butrint its special charm are also its biggest enemies, Llakana said. Growing roots damage the marble and the rising water level rots mortar-bound buildings and destroys the rare mosaics.
"We had eight workers cutting back the vegetation but they haven't been paid for months and they are gone," Llakana said. "We managed to post two guards at the acropolis, but what can they do against armed bandits?"
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'Betrayed' antiques expert awarded £200,000

BY ADAM FRESCO (Times of London)
A FINE art expert who appears on BBC1's Antiques Roadshow yesterday won more than £200,000 damages in the High Court as a judge delivered a scathing attack on a leading dealer.
Peter Nahum had taken the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Surrey, to court, claiming that it did not pay his 2.5 per cent commission for introducing the buyer of a Constable oil sketch, View on the Stour, which sold for £6.7 million in 1993.
Alan Hobart, who was acting for Sir Graham Kirkham, a multimillionaire collector and eventual buyer of the painting, was accused by the judge of "blatant lying and devious actions". It was said that Mr Hobart tried to cut Mr Nahum, his friend of 20 years, out of the deal, claiming he had done everything himself.
Mr Nahum had an agreement with the college to find buyers for three paintings that were being sold to raise money for restoration work on the college. A Turner went to the Getty Museum for £11 million in September 1993 without any involvement by Mr Nahum. He then introduced Sir Graham to the college as a potential buyer of a Gainsborough, Peasants Going to Market, which sold for £3.5 million. Mr Nahum was paid his 2.5 per cent commission of £100,000.
Mr Hobart told him that Sir Graham was not interested in the Constable. Mr Nahum later read in an arts magazine that he had bought it.
Judge John Prosser said that Mr Hobart had told the college that he had dealt directly with the sale of the Constable and that it was "a completely separate deal", so there was no need to use Mr Nahum.
The action of Mr Hobart, who runs Pym's Gallery in London, was "a sad betrayal of a very close friend of 20 years", the judge said.
The judge said he would not allow such "deviousness" to deprive Mr Nahum of his commission. He was awarded £196,800 plus interest.
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Britain freezes £16m art sale to America

The Getty Museum is angry over an export delay on a Poussin from Sudeley Castle, reports Dalya Alberge
 THE director of the Getty Museum in California expressed dismay yesterday over a British Government decision to delay by up to a year the export of a Poussin painting that it bought for £16 million.
 The delay is to allow a British institution match the price. If nobody comes forward in three months, the Getty can take the landscape. But the National Galleries of Scotland are believed to be keen to acquire it.
 John Walsh, the Getty director, said yesterday: "We are amazed and dismayed by the length of the deferral period. We purchased the painting in March and made an application for an export licence on April 1. It has taken 15 weeks for us to be told that consideration of our application is to be deferred, for certain for three months, and possibly for a further nine. In other words, almost 16 months could elapse before we know the outcome of our application.
 "I believe this is an imposition that is unprecedented and certainly disproportionate to the standing of the painting, which is far from being the finest by Poussin in British public or private collections."
 In 1994 the museum was prevented from buying Canova's The Three Graces for £7.6 million and the sculpture was secured by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many in the art world expressed sympathy for the Getty over the way that export rules were seemingly manipulated.
 Temps Calme, a 1650s imaginary scene by the 17th-century French master featuring a shepherd watching his flock, was sold by private treaty by the trustees of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire. The Getty said that, with the exception of a couple of loans, the painting had hung hidden from public view in Sudeley's private apartments. At the Getty it could be seen by more than a million visitors this year. One dealer said: "I don't particularly feel it was something that shouldn't be allowed to leave. It has been here and relatively unseen."
 The Department of Culture, Media and Sport would not confirm the export delay but said that a statement was likely in a few days.
 Britain has 29 paintings by Poussin in public art galleries and 19 in private collections. Any attempt to buy this example would require help from the National Lottery and partnership funding. The trustees of Sudeley Castle, which dates back to the 15th century, have argued that they were forced to sell "the family silver" to save the house for future generations. They have sold works from a collection that includes Rubens, Reynolds and Ruysdael. In 1990, Constable's The Lock was sold for £10.78 million to the Thyssen Foundation in Lugano.
 The castle is home to Henry Dent-Brocklehurst, a friend of the actress Elizabeth Hurley and the godson of Camilla Parker Bowles. He has been described as Britain's richest and most eligible bachelor: reports suggested that he inherited £50 million on his 30th birthday.
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The Unfinished History of the Aksum Obelisk Return

 Addis Ababa (Addis Tribune, July 11, 1997) - Part 5 The Ethiopian Parliament, and the People, Speak Out
 Demands for Restitution in 1996
 We saw last week that demands for the return of the Aksum obelisk were voiced constantly during the early 1990s. Now read on:
 Ethiopian demands for the return of the obelisk escalated in the run- up to the Adwa Centenary Celebrations in the Spring of 1996, when rumour, falsely as it turned out, got around that the Italian Government would chose the centenary of the Battle of Adwa to take action on the obelisk issue. The demand for restitution was then taken up by an old friend, Professor Andreas Eshete, Chairman of the Ethiopian Adwa Centenary Commemoration Committee. This gave the movement renewed publicity. Members of the Aksum Obelisk Return Committee spoke, together with Professor Andreas, in a high level Ethiopian television and radio programme, urging immediate Italian action for the obelisk's return.
 The movement, which had until that time been mainly the work of a few dedicated individuals, in the Aksum Obelisk Return Committee, and its overseas supporters, then, at long last, received the official, institutional, support of the Ethiopian Government and people.
 Another turning point occurred when Ato Habteab Bairu, an old friend of half a century's standing, approached a prominent official of Addis Ababa University, Professor Samuel Assefa, who approached the Speaker of the Ethiopian Federal Parliament, Ato Dawit Yohannes, who realised that the time for institutional action had arrived.
 The Ethiopian Parliament accordingly, for the first time in its history, held a public hearing on the obelisk as a matter of public concern. Devoted to the question of the obelisk, the gathering was addressed by Professor Andreas Eshete, of the Adwa Centenary Commemoration Commission, Professor Bahru Zewde, the then Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Dr Kassai Begashaw, Minister of Culture, as well as by Fitawrari Amede Lemma and other members of the Aksum Obelisk Return Committee. Mr Marco Vigoni, an Italian teacher at the Italian School in Addis Ababa, also gave his support. This was particularly gratifying, in that the Addis Ababa Italian community as a whole, regrettably, never came out wholeheartedly in support of obelisk restitution.
 Shortly afterwards, on 8 February 1996, the Parliament unanimously passed an historic resolution demanding the obelisk's immediate return. The resolution instructed the Ethiopian Government to follow up on the matter.
 This Parliamentary action won the obelisk renewed media attention, and at last made the stele's restitution well-nigh inevitable.
 The Patriarch's Letter
 His Holiness Patriarch Paulos V, Head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whom we then approached, shortly afterwards despatched letters on the matter to the Christian Churches of Africa, as well as to the Pope of Rome. In his epistle to the Pope, despatched on 22 June, which in itself was virtually unprecedented, declared:
 "Greetings in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen.
 "It is our pleasure to write to you today on a subject that we are sure you will understand and appreciate.
 "You might be aware that Ethiopia, like your own country Poland, was not spared from the convulsions and imbroglio of the Second World War. I need not go into detail on the spiritual, human, social and political dimensions of its far ranging consequences.
 "When Fascist Italy attempted to subdue our people and subjugate our country in 1935-1941, it dismally failed, primarily due to the heroism of our freedom-fighters and the relentless efforts of our church.
 "In its brief stay here where it was harried by our heroes, Fascist Italy managed to take away one of the world-famous obelisks of Axum.
 "The loot, the second tallest and sadly for our church the one that used to stand in the courtyard of the St Mary of Zion Church in Axum, stands to this day in front of the F. A. O. headquarters in Rome. We believe, Your Holiness, it is time the obelisk came back home. In this connection, therefore, we would like to solicit your voice and your moral authority so that the obelisk which has a tremendous historical and cultural value to us Ethiopians and to the Peoples of Africa as well as to others of African descent to be brought back to where it was taken from - Ethiopia. . ."
 The Parliament of Tegray (Region 1) not long afterwards passed a similar resolution for the obelisk's restitution.
 Petition by the People of Aksum
 Later, in June, another important development occurred. Mr Tony Hickey, of Experience Travel, with whom we had discussed the obelisk issue in England, before his arrival in Ethiopia, arranged with his colleague Ato Naftalem Kiros, to organise a petition at Aksum for the return of the obelisk. Over 13,000 inhabitants of the city at once enthusiastically signed an Obelisk Return Petition, and, shortly afterwards, a further thousand. This was the largest petition ever signed in Ethiopian history, and received considerable media attention, on BBC radio and television, and Canadian radio, as well as in the Italian, British, and world press.
 This Petition, which deserves to be written in letters of gold, declares:
 "We, the people of Aksum, recall that our second largest obelisk was unjustly taken from our city by fascist Italy in 1937.
 "We further recall that this obelisk should have been returned in accordance with Article 37 of the Italian Peace Treaty with the United Nations, which specified that all loot taken from Ethiopia after 3 October 1935, i. e. the date of the fascist invasion, should be returned within 18 months.
 "We also recall that the Ethiopian Federal Parliament passed a unanimous resolution, on 8 February of this year, demanding for the obelisk's immediate return.
 "We are most anxious to see the obelisk, our priceless historical heritage, returned to Aksum as soon as possible, and, supporting the Ethiopian Parliament's unanimous resolution, hereby petition for our obelisk's immediate restitution".
 Press Correspondence, Trieste Resolution, and Rome Poster
 In Britain meanwhile correspondence on the obelisk, by Stephen Bell and the present writer, appeared in both The Times and The Guardian. The Anglo-Ethiopian Society also circularised their members on the issue of the monument's continued, and unjustified, stay in Rome. Two interviews with a member of the Obelisk Committee appeared in the Rome journal l'Unita, in which the Italian agitation for the stele's return had in a sense originally started, half a decade earlier. In them it was suggested that if the obelisk was not returned African states would be obliged to oppose an Italian proposal to hold the Olympic Games in Rome. The dramatic question was asked: "The obelisk or the games?" International supporters of the Committee also wrote letters on the obelisk issue to Italian embassies in Britain, the United States, and other parts of the world.
 The Fourth International Conference on the History of Ethiopian Art, meeting in Trieste, Italy, in September, passed a resolution, moved by Professor Achamele Debela, urging the Italian authorities to return the obelisk without delay.
 Almost at the same time a notable Italian anti-fascist, Signor Alberto Imperiali, and a group of Ethiopians in Rome, put up a poster on the Rome obelisk. This stated that the monument did not belong to Italy, but to Ethiopia, from which it had been wrongly "stolen".
 Secretary-General of OAU Supports Restitution
 In Addis Ababa meanwhile Fitawrari Amede Lemma and members of the Obelisk Committee called on Dr Salem Ahmed Salem, Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, who stated publicly that he was fully in support of restitution.
 Inter-Ministerial Committee
 The Ethiopian Government's Inter-Ministerial Committee, chaired by Ato Jara Haile Mariam, of the Ministry of Culture, meanwhile considered the obelisk issue extensively, and coopted on to it three members of the Return Committee. The final meeting of the series, held on 9 January 1997, was chaired by the Ethiopian Minister of Information and Culture, Ato Woldemikael Chamu, and addressed by the Foreign Minister, Ato Seyoum Mesfin. Speakers at this gathering, which was televised, all insisted once more on the obelisk's speedy restoration to Ethiopia.
 These, and other manifestations, were widely reported in the Ethiopian, Italian, and international press.
 Detailed expositions on the obelisk issue were published in the Italian and Ethiopian press, notably by Professor Francaviglia, and three members of the Return Committee: Ato Belai Gedey, Engineer Tadele Bitul Kibrat, and the present writer. Advocates of the obelisk's restitution also made use of Internet to despatch a packet of material on the issue to Web-users throughout the world.
 Mission to Rome: A Decision at Last
 The final act of the drama (at least to date!) came following the visit to Rome in the Spring of this year by an Ethiopian delegation led by Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tekeda Alemu, and the subsequent visit of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
 Dr Takeda was accompanied by two members of the Aksum Obelisk Committee, and in fact its undisputed founders, Fitawrari Amede Lemma and Ato Belai Gidey. Dr Takeda and the Italian Deputy Foreign Minister, Senator Rino Serri duly signed an Ethio-Italian agreement, on 4 March. It specified that the obelisk will be returned within the current year 1997. This was further laid down in subsequent joint Ethiopian declaration, made at the time of Prime Minister Melles's visit, on 8 April. The full texts of both documents were published this year in "Addis Tribune" of 16 May.
 So far, of course, the obelisk, has not moved. It still stands, today, in Rome, where Mussolini placed close on sixty years ago. The 1997 deadline, specified in this year's Ethio-Italian agreement, is only six months away!
 Let the last words in this series of articles come from my friend Professor Pascal James Imperato, an Italo-American, who is Distinguished Service Professor in the State University of New York Health Science Center at Broklyn, a man who struggled in the United States for the obelisk's return. In a letter which has just reached me he writes:
 "The return of the obelisk represents not only the restoration of Ethiopian cultural patrimony, but also an act of healing for Italian aggression against Ethiopia in 1935-41. I hope that in the future, the obelisk will come to symbolize the Ethiopian people's admirable capacity to persist and endure even when faced with overwhelming adversity"
 To this we can but say: Amen!
 (This concludes the present series of articles on the Obelisk)
 by Dr. Richard Pankhurst
 Copyright 1997 Addis Tribune. Distributed via Africa News Online. -0-
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