UK and International Organisations

This section intends to examine the current organisations connected with the prevention of an illicit trade in cultural property. There will be an explanation of each company's function and their relation to antiquities assessed. Some are very specific to antiquities, such as the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, whereas other organisations, such as Trace Magazine or Purcell cover more general objects of fine art and antiques.

Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (IARC) 125

IARC is a Cambridge based organisation that forms part of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Their statement of intent gives reasons for what they will do to raise awareness of the illicit trade in antiquities. This includes pressing the government to adopt the 1970 UNESCO convention. ¹²⁶

The centre performs some market examination, especially at auction, and has had success recognising and tracking Cycladic figurines. ¹²⁷ However, their main focus is on protecting the academic, not monetary, value of antiquities. ¹²⁸

The organisation produces a bi-yearly periodical entitled 'Culture Without Context' ¹²⁹ that remarks on the illicit trade in antiquities. In a recent issue they reported on the preservation of Gandhara's cultural heritage ¹³⁰ and noted, with disgust, that a London dealer at the successful 'Asian Art in London' exhibition had arranged a display of un-provenanced antiquities from this area. ¹³¹ The periodical has no fear in naming those responsible for assisting in the illicit trade of antiquities, but might verge on being libellous if they cannot prove their claims.

(Lord) Collin Renfrew (archaeologist and member of the House of Lords), is the director of IARC and Peter Watson (investigative journalist ¹³²), assists with editorial and research. Both men have had a significant impact on raising awareness of the illicit trade through television, books, articles and debates in the House of Lords. ¹³³ This gives the Centre a good basis for recognition in both the media and Government.

The existence of IARC proves that there is a desire to address the growing trade in illicit antiquities and shows the value of independent organisations in addressing current problems. If IARC focuses on antiquities then maybe there should be other organisations to investigate different areas of illicitly traded cultural property. This would be very interesting because there would then be a basis to create a single unit that would specialise in the prevention of an illicit trade in cultural property.

Protection of Cultural Objects (PCO) and Object ID 134

The Getty Information Institute, part of the Getty Museum (which has one of the largest collection of antiquities in the world), created a scheme to protect items of cultural importance. The PCO scheme questioned a wide variety of organisations, from museums to valuers, on how they catalogued objects. They narrowed down the main points for identification and produced the Object ID checklist ¹³⁵ which is used as a single way of categorising any object. The PCO recommended that objects be photographed as this can be more beneficial than a description.

Object ID is incredibly important because it standardises information. This makes it easier to search manual and electronic databases, write descriptions and sets a standard to follow when cataloguing items for inventory. Information will also be simpler to share because the same method is used in every organisation and there will be no incompatibility with database systems. If an item has been stolen, then Object ID is useful as a system of enhancing a description by using the key points of identification.

The only downfall will be the implementation of the Object ID system within institutions that would have to rewrite entire catalogues to the new standard. However, the benefits of a single system will outweigh the costs of changing methods of identification. It is hoped that all museums, collections and institutions will switch to this method for describing objects.

In the long term, Object ID should provide a useful tool to keep track of every cultural object discovered, excavated, in circulation or on display. This could link organisations such as IARC who could compare databases of stolen or illicitly excavated objects and filter out illegal property.

Antiquities Dealers Association (ADA)

The Antiquities Dealers Association, based in London, connects British and European antiquities dealers, collectors, experts and auction house officials. The association is an important source of information on the active trade in antiquities and members are up-to-date with current events such as legal issues, recent discoveries and price value of antiquities.

ADA has written a code of conduct that they expect their members to follow if they wish to remain a part of the organisation. For example, it contains provisions to undertake purchases in good faith ¹³⁶ and not sell items that they are suspicious of coming from an illicit source. ¹³⁷ By requesting that members follow such a code, ADA is attempting to protect the dealer, from entering into an illicit trade, and consumer, from being sold wares that are stolen.

When actually buying from a dealing member of this association, I discovered that the dealer does not necessarily follow the code of his association. For example, I bought an inexpensive Egyptian shabti ¹³⁸ and was told that I could not learn the source or trace the provenance because this information 'is impossible to find and not particularly important.' ¹³⁹ This point is easily defended because there were incredible amounts of small, portable antiquities bought back by travellers of 'the Grand Tour' and many of these remain in circulation on the market today. There are few inventories from the 18th century that describe archaeological finds and ascertaining provenance is extremely difficult. It may be possible to examine house inventories of important individuals to see if antique items have been recorded, but they are likely to have brought more expensive pieces than this on their journey.

When expressing interests in tracing British artefacts, the dealer continued our discussion by saying that he didn't ask questions as to their origin because the source was often highly confidential, stating that he purchased from metal detectors who did not want to reveal the source of their finds. ¹⁴⁰ This is a good example of the illicit trade in low value antiquities because the nighthawk, metal detectors who will find artefacts by night and then remove them without permission, (therefore illicitly excavating goods) are a major source of illicitly excavated, British, antiquities.

By admitting this, the dealer no longer acts in good faith because he is not concerned with the source of his stock. This could encourage holders of illicitly recovered objects to sell their 'finds' to this dealer because he will ask no questions and provide quick payment for objects. A profitable compromise for finder and dealer.

Experiencing this at first hand and then reading of similar exchanges in 'The Salisbury Hoard,' ¹⁴¹ it appears that several dealers in the British antiquities trade are unconcerned with provenance and the source of items they deal in. This is disturbing because the dealers involved are members of ADA and therefore should be more careful than those less knowledgeable, and set an example for the rest of the trade to follow.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Portable Antiquities Scheme 142

This scheme was introduced in 1997 by the DCMS and the main aims are: ¹⁴³

- to advance our knowledge of the history and archaeology of England and Wales;
- to initiate a system for recording of archaeological finds;
- to encourage and promote better recording practice by finders;
- to strengthen links between the detector users and archaeologists;
- to estimate how many objects are being found across England and Wales, and what resources would be needed to record them.

According to the DCMS, treasure finds, under the new act, ¹⁴⁴ have increased sevenfold in the last year, but many items fall outside of the usual bounds for recording. The Department wanted to address this and record the majority of items discovered by metal detector's and hobbyists. PAS was devised to increase the number of centres where finds could be recorded and allow immediate examination of both metal and other (flint axe-heads, fossils, ceramic wares, etc.) artefacts. The hope is that PAS will cement the poor relationship between finder and academic institution as well as encouraging finders to declare finds for their archaeological value.

The organisation recorded 13,500 objects in the first year of operation, ¹⁴⁵ but 12,000 came from one source and therefore the figures can be misleading as to the schemes overall success. However, many local branches of the PAS have had encouraging results often with 50% or more antiquities being recorded. Through PAS we can preserve information on the past before it is sold or lost. The scheme will use Object ID for recording items.

The biggest potential trouble with this scheme is that it is voluntary. Despite making it attractive for people to come forward with their items they still have to actually come forth with some information, such as location of find spots. Exposure of personal details may not be favourable to some finders. However, I could not see that it would work as well if it were not voluntary because finders would feel pressured to tell of everything they found and it would be an onerous duty on a part-time hobby. The scheme benefits the finder because they will know exactly what they posses and hopefully find greater interest in the history and archaeology of ancient artefacts.

Museum Security Network (MSN) 146

Although not a specific organisation to prevent an illicit trade in antiquities, the MSN is one of the best Internet resources for obtaining current information on a wide variety of issues concerning cultural heritage, thefts, disasters and museum security. Hosted by Ton Cremers in Holland, the web-site contains links to documents such as Unidroit 1995, UNESCO 1970 and the Charter of Courmeyer and provides access to many related web-sites.

The best feature of the MSN is the daily subscriber list ¹⁴⁷ which acts as a centre for the flow of information and is a very quick method of keeping up to date in the field. The list contains discussions, articles, reports and issues that concern cultural property and museums in general and it reaches nearly 1,000 readers. There are some very important contributors, such as Connie Lowenthal, who currently heads the Commission for Art Recovery ¹⁴⁸ (which seeks to get back the art stolen by the Nazi's) and is an expert in the field of art crime. It has been established for over two years and, therefore, has a pedigree that newer mailing lists can not equal.

Thanks must go to Mr. Cremers who has kindly allowed me to reproduce information from the daily list.

Trace / Thesaurus / ACTS 1

The Thesaurus Group, based on the Isle of Wight, is a small organisation that has been collecting information on antiques and collectables for nearly ten years. The group offers a number of options including the Auction Search Service, Active Crime Tracking System and Trace Magazine. It is also developing a new service called the Stolen Art Network which will be an online database to trace stolen art.

Through scanning up to 90+ auction house catalogues a day, Thesaurus generates information for collectors interested in particular items, for example, Celtic brooches. They use this information to help direct a collector to lots at auction in the UK - a task that would be expensive and difficult for an individual to undertake. The Group realised that they had useful information to compare with stolen items and developed ACTS to check the auction lists with those of stolen objects. By filtering descriptions, ACTS can eliminate information and then match descriptions with a high success rate (between 50 - 80%), creating 4 to 5 accurate matches per day. Many stolen items will be advertised in Trace, their monthly magazine that is dedicated to publicising stolen items in the hopes someone will recognise them.

The obvious application for this tool would be searching for stolen / looted antiquities and it would be very interesting to match dealers stock lists as well as auction catalogues to see if more matches were possible. This would be good for dealers because they would be provably diligent in providing honest stock for their customers and also limit the appeal for thieves to sell on the open market.

The potential for this tool is enormous and should be a basis for a national police database of stolen items. I understand that the group is working with image matching, rather like a photo-fit, to make it easier for less knowledgeable people to build up an image of the stolen item. With their current success rate, nearly 2,000 art and antique items could be recovered every year. This would not only assist the police, who have many other crimes to deal with, but hopefully help injured parties to recover their losses quickly. However, the database service is not especially cheap and this limits its appeal, but Trace is inexpensive and makes Thesaurus approachable on all levels.

Art Loss Register (ALR) 150

The ALR is a London based organisation that has a very high profile image for the recovery of art and antiques. Despite only finding 1,000 objects in 10 years, the ALR is important for bringing together many organisations that might be of assistance in recovering art. For example, the big Four auction houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonham's and Phillip's), Chubb Insurance, Llyod's of London and the Police all actively support the ALR. ¹⁵¹

The company has its own antiquities division which does its best to find lost objects by tracing them through observational methods, for example, physically examining auction catalogues. The process is rather ad hoc and we were given one example of an employee spotting a stolen chair in an antiques shop whilst on her lunch break!¹⁵¹ Of the items they have recovered so far, about 2% have been antiquities. ¹⁵³

The organisation picks up the reward for finding an object and charges a finders fee.

The ALR offers a specific service for the recovery of antiquities, setting out to recover objects in a similar way to a bounty hunter - collecting a reward for their services. However, this is a further example of a private institution actively involving themselves with the recovery of stolen and illicitly traded antiquities.

Council for the Prevention of Art Theft (CoPAT) 154

CoPAT, established by Mark Dalrymple in 1992 / 1993, was created to try and combat art theft and is responsible for tackling issues, within law and commerce, that affect trader and consumer dealing in this area. For example, they overturned Market Overt in 1994 ¹⁵⁵ which put a stop to the legalising of stolen goods (if bought at certain times from certain markets).

More recently, after many struggles, CoPAT have produced a Code of Due Diligence for Auctioneers and Dealers ¹⁵⁶ to set down common sense rules for people to follow when trading in fine art and antiques. The aim is to prevent theft by increasing diligence and making it more difficult for a thief to sell his goods on the open market. Along with the code, CoPAT introduced a due diligence officer in every police force to deal with situations arising from this scheme. For example, when dealing in second hand goods it can be easy to purchase stolen goods without realising, a due diligence officer will be there to deal with this kind of problem.

CoPAT is a valuable organisation that aims to deal with problems gradually and through the correct channels. For example, Market Overt was overturned through a Private Members Bill and the Code's were only written after everybody concerned had been consulted and agreed to the exact wording and principles involved. Their efforts affect the whole art and antiques trade and this makes it relevant to dealers in antiquities, a trade where diligence is especially required when buying items.

The Police 157 / GRASP 158

The Police are concerned with all crime and have the difficulty of maintaining a strong presence to prevent theft and recover stolen property. Of the 42 force units in the UK only two have art and antiques squads, North Yorkshire and the Metropolitan Police Force. These two services only have power inside their jurisdiction and appropriating resources to continue investigations outside of their force area can be difficult.

However the Police are aware of the rise in art and antiques crime and Operation Bumblebee, which has been in existence since 1996, is proof of an attempt to address the problem (stolen items are imaged and described, recorded on a database and publicised. The Police use 'road shows' - there was one at the Birmingham NEC this year - to try and reunite owners with their property) and raise awareness of stolen art and antiques. Unfortunately, by law, if no goods are claimed back from a handler of stolen property (as dealers can be), after he has been arrested, then the goods will be returned to him. I was shocked to learn of a previously convicted criminal being returned £30,000 worth of stolen antiques after this situation occurred, but the Police are tied to the law even if it is sometimes unethical. ¹⁵⁹

The force will use external companies to help them tackle art and antiques crime because it is a specialist area. For example, Trace Magazine and the ACTS database are free for Police and their chief investigator is an ex-policeman. Another organisation they use is Purcell Security ¹⁶⁰ who will privately investigate, advertise and recover stolen fine art and antiques.

I received word last year from Vince Freeman, ¹⁶¹ who read of my dissertation through the MSN, of a project under development called GRASP. GRASP is an attempt to connect property databases (e.g. the Bumblebee Imaging System ¹⁶²) across England and Europe. By creating a single front end to link many different databases, matching stolen goods should be made easier providing an accurate description has been entered. Antiquities are usually exported from their country of origin so this would be a good way of tracing their movements across borders. In the first half of this year, GRASP was beta tested in Spain, Holland and the UK.

I did put some questions to the Home Office regarding the possibility of a national force and crime database because the Police currently operate as 42 separate constabularies with different methods in every county. However, I did not receive a reply in time for this thesis. I believe that a national force is the only way forward for the Police because they will have a standardised and simplified way of processing crime and therefore will be able to share crime information and pool resources to track crime across the country instead of inside each county. An 'Object ID' approach is needed to bring the Police together and operate under a national structure.

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The level of service available to tackle art and antiques crime and the growing number of schemes facing the illicit antiquities trade prove both its existence and the need to address the problem. I am confident that through carefully considered legislation, the growth of electronic databases and an increased sharing of property information we should gradually clamp down on the illicit trade in antiquities. By making it more and more difficult for a thief to dispose of his stolen goods through the use of due diligence, recording and imaging property, we can at least make this area less profitable and, therefore, an unattractive area to trade illicitly in.