Subject:
Ancient jewelry sale cancelled!
To: MUSEUM-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COMDear Friends,
I am happy to report that, as a result of AIA's swift response to the
proposed sale of ancient jewelry at the St. Louis Art Museum, the
Museum has decided to cancel the sale. The letters and messages from
numerous colleagues, members of the Professional Responsibilities
Committee, and the leadership of the St. Louis Society of the AIA were
successful in communicating our conviction that collecting of
undocumented antiquities and the commodification of archaeological
artifacts has a direct link to rampant site looting and the illicit trade, and
must not be promoted. We appreciate Associate Director Sidney
Goldstein's thoughtful reconsideration of the circumstances and his
willingness to work with archaeologists on responsible educational
programs for ancient art and archaeology.
Dr. Goldstein has requested that I circulate the following statement: *The
Saint Louis Art Museum has canceled the jewelry sale scheduled for this
weekend. The sale was to have been part of the events surrounding the
opening of the exhibit, *Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians,*
which opens to the public Saturday and continues through April 5.
Some members of the archaeological community have expressed
concerns about the sale of antiquities within museums. Despite the fact
that all items for sale here would have had appropriate provenance and
would have been presented by well-established, reputable dealers, we
have decided to cancel the jewelry sale to keep the focus on our world
premiere of this important exhibition.*
Many thanks!
Claire Lyons
AIA Vice President, Professional Responsibilities
[note: this posting is sent on behalf of the Archaeological Institute of
America and is not intended to represent the views of any other
organization or institution.]
From: nccs-wf@fbi.gov
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject:
Indictment of James Gilreath for rare book theft
Dear Antiquarian Book Dealers:The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia seek information regarding any efforts by James W. Gilreath to sell rare books.
On January 22, 1998, Gilreath, formerly employed as an American History specialist in the Library of Congress Rare Book Division, was indicted in the District of Columbia on counts of Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property, Receiving Stolen Property, and First Degree Theft. According to the indictment returned in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the stolen books include a two volume French translation of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", and books associated with Horace Traubel. The thefts allegedly occurred between 1992 and 1997.
Anyone having information regarding Gilreath's efforts to sell rare books should send a reply e-mail to nccs-wf@fbi.gov. Replies should include a summary of relevant information, and your name and telephone number so you can be contacted by the FBI.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
3 more messages about 'Looted Art and Congress' by:
Debra Westerman, Margaret Hayon, and Antonia Kriks.
(Museum-L)
From: Debra Westerman
Subject:
Re: Looted Art and Congress
I know that this has become a sensitive subject and we are actually
putting the US at the basis of all this, but as an archaeologist, I
feel this subject may need to become a world wide concern. For
example, Europe has a lot of archaeological finds of early North
American natives in their museums due to finds made in the late 19th
and early 20th century by enthusiastic collectors. The US has
repeatedly tried to retrieve these artifacts and to no avail. Laws in
other countries basically say "Finders keepers, Losers weepers." So,
as you can see, it isn't just the US law that is at work here. Maybe
"sharing" can be decided in some new terms sometime in the near
future.
Re Nigerian cultural heritage, I saw an interesting and detailed
article on this topic: "Cultural heritage legislation and management
in Nigeria" by Folarin Shyllon (Professor of Law, University of
Ibadan, Nigeria) - published in "International Journal of Cultural
Property" Vol 5 (1996) No.2, pp.235-268.
Re the Benin expedition of 1897, my brother wrote a book on this:
"City of blood revisited" by Robert Home (published Rex Collings,
London, 1982). The book includes oral testimony from Nigerian
survivors of the massacre, collected by my brother in Benin in the
early 1960s. My brother and I lived for some time in pre-independence
Nigeria in our childhood, as our father worked there for the colonial
administration. I still possess two Yoruba Ibeji figures, given me as
a personal gift by the Chief of a town where we lived. They are of
great sentimental significance to me: I hope no-one will require me to
return them! :-) However, I'm strongly in favour of the return of
cultural heritage to its legitimate heirs. I'm now documenting the
Ethiopian Jewish traditions: photographing manuscripts and
taperecording oral traditions. I return photocopies of the manuscripts
and copies of the recordings to those who gave them to me. An
Ethiopian Jewish Qes once grumbled to me about researchers (not me!)
who visit and record material from them, and then disappear: he
commented: "they are stealing our heritage"!
Of course nobody wants to go back to the Middle Ages or earlier in the
question of restitution of illicit traded antiquities, otherwise most
of the museums in USA would be stripped to the walls and quite a few
of the museums in Germany for example could be taken back to Italy and
Greece completely. But there are a few ideas how to regulate the
restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects: One is
called 'Unidroit Convention' (last edition 1995), the other one UNESCO
Convention (1970). Most of the European countries have ratified one or
the other or both but not Germany. One (amongst many) of the reasons
is, as the Republic of Germany puts it, that the freedom of trade with
cultural artefacts could be restricted, another one that the
law-courts would be overloaded with those kind of legal proceedings.
So we still do have a thriving trade in antiquities in Germany, last
example was the discovery of stolen Bycantine Art from Cyprus in
Munich, containing half of the islands cultural property, namely the
one of the northern, Turkish occupied part. It was right in the middle
of Munich for nearly 20 years, near the police station.
Of course, Switzerland has signed the Unidroit Convention in 1996 and
Zürich is still a trade center for illegally transfered or stolen art,
but on the long run they'll be at least legally obliged to controll
the trade of art. Munich is also a center for illicit trade of art,
coming mainly from Eastern European countries, but here for shady
dealers it is still quite easy to do their business without major
problems. As long as they oblige to the customs duty the police will
not ask about the origin of art or antiquities, because they cannot do
anything. Somebody has to demand it as ones own first, and proof it of
course, before they start to move - but who from the Eastern part of
Europe is able to do that?
That brings us right to Chris Stanley's reply: Dear Mr. Stanley, this
has nothing to do with 'political correctness' but with fairness
towards countries which contributed most to the worlds cultural
heritage as there are Italy, Greece and so on. But I agree - most
museum curators (and private collectors) will keep what they have got,
it seems to be the nature of collectors to grab things where they can
get it. But I think museum curators should be at least so honest to
admit that they are as greedy collectors as the private ones are and
stop arguing morally like 'We do it to save cultural property for the
public' and so on. What's the difference between grave-robbery for
museums and grave-robbery for the private market? Both destroy
something which was not ment to be on display for curious eyes at all,
isn't it?
Debra Westerman
westerman_d@dep.state.fl.us
---------------------------------------
(Museum-L)
From: Margaret Hayon
Subject: Re: Looted Art and Congress
Margaret Hayon
Student of Museology,
University of Haifa, Israel
----------------------------------------
From: Antonia Kriks
Send reply to: antonia.kriks@munich.netsurf.de
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: (Fwd) Re: Looted Art and Congress
MSN wrote:
> From: Jason Edward Kaufman
> To: Museum Security Mailinglist
> Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: Looted Art and Congress
>
> On what basis does one propose that makers keep their creations in
> perpetuity? An object's function is not limited to its intended
> context. Should all the liturgical objects and religious paintings
> of the Middle Ages be returned to France, Belgium, and Germany -- to
> countries which did not yet exist at the time of the objects'
> manufacture?
I'd be interested if somebody knows something about the 'psychology of
collectors'? What drives people to own pieces which are, let's say,
2000 years old? Why can't they be contended with a reproduction?
Sincerely,
mit freundlichen Grüßen
A. Kriks
