October 13, 1999

CONTENTS:

Re: Library sprinkler systems

Library Fires Date

Minor listings of stolen & missing art

Clashes Over Italy Antiquity Plea

WASHINGTON (AP) - An Italian government request to protect a millennium's worth of ancient artifacts by banning their import into the United States sparked a clash between archaeologists and art dealers at a contentious government hearing Tuesday. The State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee is to make a recommendation on the request, which ultimately will be decided by President Clinton. The Italian request is the most sweeping demand ever made for restricting sale of artifacts under international agreements and a 1983 U.S. cultural properties law. Among a long list of items covered are pottery, stoneware, architectural elements, glassware, coins, sculpture, jewelry dating from the fifth century B.C. and covering the next 1,000 years. Art dealers and museum curators insist it would limit access by the American public to Italy's great cultural past. Archaeologists and the Italian government say it would help curb looting and theft of a treasured heritage. ``The commission agrees in the concern about the need to better understand the scope of the request being submitted,'' said commission chairman Martin E. Sullivan. A decision is not expected for weeks, possibly months. An Italian Embassy representative observed the committee's hearing but did not testify. Embassy officer Luigi Maccotta said he could not speak officially for the government but said as an Italian, he is bothered by the suggestions of some art dealers that Italy is trying to take away their freedom. ``We are just trying to establish some order,'' Maccotta said. ``We are not trying to limit the freedom of the public. We don't like the chain of illegal selling of objects.'' Art expert David Grace pulled a small Roman cup from a jacket pocket as an example of an artifact that might be affected, and coin collector Peter Tompa passed around ancient coins, including one he said was part of a collection belonging to President John Quincy Adams, as the scheduled two-hour hearing extended beyond four hours. Tompa said coins should not be covered because the best ones come from private caches buried away from significant archeological digs. ``Are we now going to allow a repressive society to reach beyond its borders?'' asked Arielle Kosloff, a New York gallery operator. ``Italy says its sites are being pillaged. I do not believe this is true at this time.'' But the head of the Archaeological Institute of America, Ricardo Elia, cited what he called ample evidence of continuing looting and theft, including recent successes by Italian art police in confiscating more than 30,000 pilfered artifacts in three separate raids. Elia clashed with a representative of Sotheby's, the New York auction house, on the source of Italian vases sold at an auction in New York and on the extent of Italy's looting problem. Citing the appearance of 4,200 southern Italian vases on world markets in recent years, Elia said, ``It's too much.'' The vases were not legitimately obtained, he insisted, and most are from looted archaeological sites. ``But it isn't,'' shouted Rena Moulopoulos, Sotheby's director of compliance. She said when the value of specific art objects increases, they begin to surface from a variety of sources, including legitimate private collections around the world. ``You don't have the data to support the number of thefts claimed,'' she said. Elia said auction houses, dealers and museums need to provide more documentation for artifacts they sell or display. Moulopoulos acknowledged in the hearing that Sotheby's includes the full known history of objects in its catalogs only when it would help to sell the item. Nevertheless, just because an object is undocumented doesn't mean it is stolen, she said. The commission itself also came under attack from some critics for holding its deliberations in secret and for going ahead with consideration of the Italian petition when two dealers' positions on the commission are unfilled. Appointed by the president, the commission normally includes two members representing museums, three experts in archaeology or related fields, three representing art dealers and three members of the public.