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"La Grande Razzia è ancora tra noi, e Christie’s lo sa"
.Fabio Isman writes in the Italian Arte Magazine, "La Grande Razzia è ancora tra noi, e Christie’s lo sa", whether or not they knew, they do now. " Items identified from the Medici, Becchina and Symes photographic archives are surfacing in the New York Christie's auction this June". Show More Summary
New York market and recently-surfaced antiquities
Fabio Isman has published an article noting how items identified from the Medici, Becchina and Symes photographic archives are surfacing in the New York Christie's auction this June ("La Grande Razzia è ancora tra noi, e Christie’s lo sa", Arte Magazine, May 2013). Show More Summary
Questions about the Spengler Collection remain Unanswered by US Department of State.
The late William F. Spengler was, during his career with the U.S. State Department, the highest ranking U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan. During his tenure in Kabul, Mr. Spengler [...] regularly visited the bazaar and selected individual pieces of interest [ie ancient dugup coins] that he typically purchased at the prevailing scrap or precious metal rate. [...]Show More Summary
Money Launderers Using No-Questions-Asked Art Market to Cover Criminality
Of course antiquity sales is a very good example of all the tendencies discussed in this article from the Jewish Voice (Boruch Shubert, 'Money Launderers Using Art to Cover Criminality', 22 May 2013 ) which primarily has in mind other...Show More Summary
Way to go in US "art" market
.I hope this finds wider application than 'Holocaust art':'Rutgers Law Review article advocates replacing restitution litigation with prosecutions', Lexology, May 23, 2013.
Tipperary Looter's Finds Tally
.The reports of the recovery from a private house in England of a haul of just under 900 artefacts believed to have been illegally excavated in Ireland is interesting for a number of reasons. One of them is that it reveals just how many artefacts a metal detectorist can find. Show More Summary
Focus on UK Metal Detecting, With "Friends" like these, 'the Detectorist that Never Was'
There have now been quite a few reports about the Tipperary artefact thefts case:'National Museum unveils haul of ‘looted’ artefacts''Treasure trove of looted artefacts found' 'Nowhere safe as treasure hunters plunder our heritage sites...Show More Summary
One Lot of Smuggled Dug-up Ancient Coins from Bulgaria Will not be "Surfacing" on the US No-Questions-Asked Antiquities Market, but what of the Importer?
ICE press release, 'Federal authorities return ancient coins to Bulgaria May 21, 2013.In September 2011, HSI special agents learned of a shipment of ancient coins from Bulgaria destined for the United States. HSI New York, in close coordination with CBP’s Customs Air Cargo Examination Facility, examined and seized the coins. Show More Summary
“The currency of the hobby is permission”
Tom Eblen: Metal detectorist seeks legitimacy more than treasure I always thought it would be fun to have a metal detector. I wasn’t so much interested in hunting for buried treasure as finding bits of history hidden a few inches beneath my feet. Scott Clark, an Internet business consultant in Lexington, has similar interests. An avid metal [...]
Two Canosan kraters returned to Italy
This time last year I was commenting on identifications made by Cambridge researcher Christos Tsirogiannis. He spotted that a pair of Canosan krater that were due to be auctioned in the June 2012 sale at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza could be identified from the polaroids in the Medici Dossier. The research did not go unnoticed. Show More Summary
Nowhere Safe as Treasure Hunters Plunder Heritage Sites 'for Profit'
.Louise Hogan, 'Nowhere safe as treasure hunters plunder our heritage sites 'for profit'..', Independent, 22 May 2013.Our heritage is being "plundered by people for profit", the keeper of Ireland's national treasures has warned. Ned Kelly, keeper of Irish antiquities with the National Museum, said no site was safe [...] Video here.
Rabid Arguments in US Antiquity Collecting
Dr C[lifford?] J. Scheiner (perhaps the porn dealer Clifford Scheiner?) writing on the Museum Security List reacts to the story about the looting at Antinopolis near Minya in Egypt. What he writes is astounding and really deserves putting in wider context and discussion. Show More Summary
3D PRINTING OF AMUNET'S SKULL
Thanks
o the careful work of Mallory Busso, a biomedical engineering student at Case
Western University, and the Technology House in Solon, Ohio, we now have a 3D
representation of Amunet's skull.
Mallory
was able to use the CT-scanShow More Summary
Yasmine e-Shazli on the Jan 28th Cairo Museum Looting
The interviews with Yasmine el-Shazly (see the post above) contain two snippets about the events of 28th January 2011 which I think are significant. In one interview at the end of April, she was asked a question and there is a moment of quick thinking on the topic of the Museum's security cameras inside the galleries were "not working". Show More Summary
Yasmine el-Shazly Interviews
Way back two years ago, I replied to a letter mentioning me written by Dr Yasmine el Shazly in which I suspect I was a little harsh. She did not exactly come over too well in what she wrote, perhaps too I did not fully appreciate the background to what she was writing. Show More Summary
Looting at Antinopolis
Another alert in the blogosphere to another site in danger from encroachment and looting in post-Revolution Egypt (Francesco Tiradritti. 'The battle for Egypt’s ancient Roman site, Antinopolis' Published online: 21 May 2013). This lies...Show More Summary
Keynote, Some Assembly Required, now on Youtube
‘Some Assembly Required’, my keynote at the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education is now available on youtube. (If you don’t see me, I’m the second person on the playlist). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58DOSeQ0N4&feature=share&list=PLL1ugrJCNbcq8v_iIHqh8mCja6YFOuCEe
Summer Reading List
By the end of today, I’ll be winging my way to Cyprus for my summer field season. Unlike almost every year since 2004, I won’t do any new fieldwork this summer and, instead, spend my time preparing material for study, studying past seasons, and scouting for new adventures. As I have posted already, I have […]
Euboean amphora from the Borowski collection
One of the pieces to note in Christie's forthcoming sale in June is a Euboean black-figured amphora showing a seated woman and a sphinx (lot 540). The amphora first surfaced in an anonymous sale at Sotheby's (London) December 3, 1991, lot 383. Show More Summary
Probably likely, also says I
1000-year-old coins found in Northern Territory may rewrite Australian history REMEMBER when you were taught that Australia was discovered by James Cook in 1770 who promptly declared it “terra nullius” and claimed it for the British throne? Turns out that could be completely and utterly wrong. Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an “X” [...]
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