Heritage & illicit trade

Looters plunder $8.5M from Ivory Coast museum
26 september 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Looters stormed Ivory Coast's national museum during the country's bloody political crisis earlier this year, plundering nearly $8.5 million worth of art including the institution's entire gold collection.

China warns museums after series of embarrassing thefts
14 september 2011
China has ordered its museums to tighten security after a series of embarrassing thefts, including at Beijing's Palace Museum.

Rhino horns stolen in Netherlands and other parts of Europe
30 augustus 2011
Diverse musea hebben maatregelen genomen na de inbraakgolf in heel Europa waarbij dieven er vandoor gingen met neushoornhoorns.

Watch out for looted Libyan artefacts, UN warns auction houses
29 augustus 2011
As violence spreads through Tripoli, fears grow that antiquities of 'great importance to humanity' will be destroyed

Rhino Horns Put Europe’s Museums on Thieves’ Must-Visit List
29 augustus 2011

Art thefts on the rise across North America
26 augustus 2011
A recent spate of high profile thefts suggests that art crime is increasing. The FBI estimates that international art crime, which includes fakes, forgeries and thefts, is now worth more than $6bn annually.

Nefertiti
22 augustus 2011

Backlog in Baghdad
16 augustus 2011
Staff struggle to finish Iraq museum inventory, at current rate project could take a century

Ivory Coast loses its crown jewels
1 augustus 2011
Museum authorities in Ivory Coast have contacted Interpol after thieves stole historic gold jewellery, masks and statues worth an estimated $6m

Libyan cultural heritage threatened
17 juni 2011

Turkey Presses Harder for Return of Antiquities
17 juni 2011

Afghanistan needs help to preserve cultural heritage
17 juni 2011

Chasing Aphrodite Reviewed
26 mei 2011

Piece of Acropolis returned after 50 years
14 april 2011
The Museum of Antiquities in the Dutch city of Leiden will return to Greece a small marble fragment of the Acropolis: the ancient fortress and temple complex in the capital Athens.

Armenian restitution claims grow
11 april 2011
Legal cases relating to objects looted during the Armenian massacres (of 1915 to 1918 and 1920 to 1923) are on the rise

About 1,000 relics stolen during Egyptian uprising: Zahi Hawass
11 april 2011
Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Minister for Antiquities says that about 1,000 relices have been stolen from sites across the country since the January 25 revolution broke out.

Zahi Hawass back in function: MInister of Antiquities of Egypt
4 april 2011
Zahi Hawass, who resigned as Egypt’s minister of antiquities less than a month ago under criticism for his close ties to former President Hosni Mubarak, was reappointed to the post on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an Egyptian news report; Mr. Hawass, reached by phone, confirmed his reappointment.

2 Faraonische beelden gestolen bij Luxor
21 maart 2011

Libya's 'extraordinary' archaeology under threat
3 maart 2011

Tunisie Culture: trafic des objects
21 februari 2011

8 Priceless objects gone from Egypt Museum
17 februari 2011

Cairo, Egypt: heritage in turmoil
31 januari 2011

Austria and the return of Montezuma's crown
28 januari 2011
According to information in the Austrian papers Standard, Kurier, and Kronen Zeitung, Austria seems finally willing to return the Montezuma Crown which Mexico has been claiming for decades without any success.

Germany says it will not return an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt
27 januari 2011
Germany says it will not return an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt with the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, insisting the bust was acquired legally by the Prussian state nearly a century ago.

Spanish Police’s YouTube video for most wanted art
20 januari 2011

Medewerker stadsarchief Amsterdam steelt collectie
18 januari 2011

Sotheby's cancels sale of 'looted' Benin mask
30 december 2010

Lecture video Richard J. Evans Looted art and its restitution: moral and cultural dilemmas for the twenty-first century
3 december 2010

Yale returns objects to Machu Picchu, Peru
22 november 2010
Ernesto Zedillo, a Yale professor and a former Mexican president, promised yesterday to return the artifacts, which were excavated by archaeologist and Yale Professor Hiram Bingham from the Machu Picchu citadel in the southern Andes in 1912, Garcia said in statement dated yesterday and posted on the presidential website. “The Peruvian government welcomes this decision and recognizes that Yale University preserved the pieces that otherwise would have been scattered around the world in private collections or might have disappeared,” Garcia said.

Muziekinstrumenten gestolen uit Tilburgs Museum
19 november 2010
Uit het muziekinstrumentenmuseum Muzima in Tilburg zijn in de nacht van dinsdag op woensdag tachtig tot honderd koperen blaasinstrumenten gestolen

Japan has agreed with South Korea to return some 1,000 items of South Korean cultural property it plundered during its colonial rule
9 november 2010

Repatriation of 2 rare ceramic antiquities to Peru
8 november 2010

Iranian artefacts over the world
28 oktober 2010

Egyptians jailed over Van Gogh theft
25 oktober 2010

Looted art and its restitution: moral and cultural dilemmas for the twenty-first century
25 oktober 2010

Chinese dragon breathes fire at Louvre and the British Museum
25 oktober 2010
The Chinese administration urged Western leaders, museums and private collectors to return the treasures of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. It mostly goes about the events of the Second Opium War of 1858-1860 and about the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th centuries, when British and French troops plundered the Chinese capital, including the emperor's residence.

List of art works looted by Nazis goes online
21 oktober 2010
A long register of some 20,000 art works looted by the Nazis in World War II from Jewish families was put online Monday in the hopes of reuniting the paintings and objects with their rightful owners.

Russia admits staggering losses of museum objects
20 september 2010

Iraq - Foreign Ministry Delivers Hundreds of Artifacts to National Museum
17 september 2010
Foreign Ministry held big celebration to deliver Iraqi antiquities from numerous countries to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Iraq National Museum.

Diefstal bij Quai Branly, Parijs
17 september 2010

Temple thefts India
17 september 2010

Confusion reigns over stolen Van Gogh painting
23 augustus 2010

Video on illegal trade and art traffic Cambodia
22 augustus 2010

Find a middle ground: Armenian Church and the Getty should work together
18 augustus 2010
The claims of both sides have merit; dispute over ownership of the seven pages from the Zeytun Gospels could be solved by creating a joint venue to house the relics.

Mexican Authorities recover 158 objects
18 augustus 2010
The largest recovery of cultural property that had been illegally removed from churches and archaeological sites in the country, some for the last nine years, was unveiled today by officials of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Conaculta) and the Attorney General the Republic (PGR). These are 14 colonial religious art works and 144 original pre-Columbian pieces, plus another 36 that are false.

Bibliography on looting by Hugh Jarvis
18 augustus 2010

Israel Antiquities Authority: interviews
16 augustus 2010
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is the leading organization in Israel devoted to safeguarding the country’s archaeological heritage. Some 400 strong, the IAA staff upholds its complex Antiquities Law through a variety of departments, ranging from Art Conservation to Robbery Prevention.

Madrid Museum acquires illegal Italian artefacts
15 juli 2010
Madrid’s National Archaeological Museum, founded in 1867, may have acquired 22 antiquities that were illegally excavated and exported from Italy.

Nederlandse regering geeft voorwerpen terug aan Baghdad
15 juli 2010
Germany, July 10, (Pal Telegraph) - The Dutch government has turned over dozens of antiquities stolen from Iraq to Baghdad's ambassador. The 69 pieces include cylindrical stone seals older than 2000 B.C. and a terra-cotta relief depicting a bearded man praying. Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Ronald Plasterk said Thursday the ancient artifacts were surrendered by Dutch traders after police informed them they were stolen. He has called on other countries to do more to halt the illicit trade in stolen antiquities. U.S. customs authorities and Interpol had alerted Dutch authorities that the items were being sold here. Diederik Meijer of the Dutch National Museum for Antiquities declined to put a value on the artifacts, saying it could boost the trade.

Macedonia's largest-ever antiquities smuggling crackdown busts ring, recovers artifacts
28 juni 2010

Tang Dynasty sarcophagus brought back home
21 juni 2010
The return of a smuggled Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 907) sarcophagus from the United States to China may serve as a good example for international collaboration to curb the rampant pillaging and smuggling of treasures, researchers have said.

Redlist Cultural Heritage at risk Central America
15 juni 2010
Given the patrimonial richness of Mexico and Central American nations, on Tuesday June 8th 2010 the International Council of Museums (ICOM) will announce the Red List of Cultural Objects at Risk in Central America and Mexico, elaborated by a group of experts from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Egypt's Zahi Hawass Is Waging a Bitter Moral Campaign Against the West
14 juni 2010

The World's Biggest Illicit Industries
14 juni 2010
The $125 million theft of five paintings by artists like Picasso and Matisse from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in May caught the attention of the world. But compared with the total annual trade in illicit goods, the heist was small change.

The philippines on illicit trade and cultural heritage
25 mei 2010

Paris raid marks almost a century of art theft
25 mei 2010
The theft last week of five paintings by artists including Picasso and Matisse is one of the biggest robberies in the art world in decades. The paintings, which were reported missing from the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris on Thursday morning after staff discovered a broken window, are reported to be worth almost Dh454 million in total. The works stolen were Pastoral by Henri Matisse (1906), Olive Tree near l’Estaque by Georges Braque (1906), Dove with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (1911), Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani (1919) and Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Léger (1922). The raid, which has been branded a “serious crime against the heritage of humanity” by France’s deputy culture secretary, Cristophe Girard, is just the latest in a long line that have taken place over the years.

India on Cairo Conference of April 2010: on Restitution
18 mei 2010
India has joined the Cairo global initiative to restore antiquities back to their countries of origin for the first time after decades of unsuccessfully trying to reclaim stolen treasures like the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the Birmingham Buddha.

Africa’s cultural heritage treasure war with Europe
17 mei 2010
Looting, museumification, restitution... African cultural heritage experts are calling out and rebelling. Egypt, the instigator of an international protest movement has, for several months now, adopted only one watchword: the "restitution" of its treasures, displayed in museums across the Western world. The rallying cry has become a leitmotif of concern that has attracted many other countries to follow Egypt’s lead. Syria, Nigeria, Peru and even Greece have joined in the dance, raising a critical question: Would the prized artifacts remain safe in their hands? A controversial issue among both policy makers and African cultural heritage experts.

BARBIER-MUELLER MUSEUM SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH TANZANIA TO RETURN STOLEN MAKONDE MASK
17 mei 2010

Wie bezit kunst die in oorlogstijd gestolen is?
7 mei 2010

REFLECTIONS ON THE CAIRO CONFERENCE ON RESTITUTION: ENCOURAGING BEGINNING - Kwame Opoku
7 mei 2010

Wanted: Australian smuggler for dealing in underwater heritage
3 mei 2010
An Australian man is arrested in Indonesia for smuggling Chinese Ming Dynasty objects from ship wrecks off the coast of the Riau Islands

On the Repatriation of Cultural Heritage - Korea
13 april 2010
A group of 26 countries including, Korea, Egypt, Greece, India and China have recently joined forces in a campaign for repatriation of their stolen cultural objects and antiquities. They held the first international conference on recovering looted works of art and artifacts in Cairo on April 7-8. As a first step, they drafted a catalogue of priority objects that they want returned.

Global Antiquities Conference Egypt: interviews
12 april 2010
The video suggests that there were two separate issues addressed: material that was acquired long before the 1970 UNESCO Convention, and the trade in the recently-surfaced antiquities. The video includes an interview with the Syrian delegation.

British Museum under pressure to give up leading treasures
12 april 2010
The British museum is to come under renewed pressure to give up leading treasures as 16 countries plan to sign a declaration that demands the return of artefacts sent overseas generations ago

Combating the Illicit Antiquities Trade: Progress and Problems
31 maart 2010
It was helpful, at the International Meeting on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Property organised by the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturale, in Rome in December 2009 to review together progress in combating the illicit traffic. There has been real international progress in recent years in which our Italian colleagues have taken an outstanding role. It has been a privilege, therefore, to review the position with an international group of officials and scholars, and to appreciate the successes of the Italian authorities in achieving the return to Italy of a major series of looted antiquities from museums in the United States. We hope that the process will continue, for instance with apparently looted antiquities currently under scrutiny in Britain and in Denmark. But the question arises: how can we ensure that these encouraging initiatives really do go on to have, as their successful conclusion, the reduction in the international traffic in looted antiquities?

TV Documentary: Blood Antiques
31 maart 2010
The European art trade, synonymous with wealth and glamour, has always involved a degree of stolen and smuggled art. Now, Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage is financing terrorism and the Taliban. From Afghans scrabbling in the sand for treasures, to the dazzling show rooms of unscrupulous dealers and private collectors – ‘Blood Antiques’ uncovers one of the most outrageous illegal trades since blood diamonds.

Should Britain return Africa’s stolen treasures?
12 maart 2010
Davina Morris examines the ongoing debate over Britain’s acquisition of priceless African artefacts FANS of the ‘90s BBC comedy show The Real McCoy may remember the sketch when pro-African activist Babylon (played by Felix Dexter) urged black Britons to head down to the British Museum with a big bin liner to “tek back your tings!” Though the sketch was intended to be comedic (and it was), it highlighted the ongoing issue of whether British institutions should return the many cultural items they possess that were taken from Africa years ago.

US vows to return shipment of looted Khmer antiquities
4 maart 2010
US officials have promised to continue the repatriation of stolen Cambodian antiquities. Authorities gave examples of items, including this carved sandstone stela (left) and a statue of a female divinity.

SAFE's Flickr Project
4 februari 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 SAFE's Flickr Project On January 12, 2010 Haiti was changed forever by a devastating earthquake that took the lives of thousands and left a huge portion of the country in ruins. SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone recognizes that in times of mass destruction, human lives must always be first priority. At the same time, Haiti stands to lose its heritage, which has been a source of great pride throughout the country's troubled history. Historic neighborhoods and landmarks like the National Palace, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and the Supreme Court have been leveled by the earthquake. Artists, art dealers, foreign envoys, and others are scrambling to assess the cultural loss and to ensure the safety of portable cultural objects like books, paintings, documents, and artifacts. To join these efforts to preserve Haiti's heritage, SAFE has initiated a Flickr project, "Haiti: Look back to look ahead," to collect pictures and videos of what has now become intangible, that is, life in Haiti before January 12, 2010. We are looking for images of Haiti's built environment

France returns Nigerian artifacts
3 februari 2010
Friday, 29 January 2010 THERE are indications that Nigeria’s efforts to repatriate some of it’s stolen artifacts have started yielding dividends as officials of the French government handed over to Nigeria two artifacts dated over 400 years which were unlawfully taken away from the country during the colonial times. The works which prices in local and international market have risen immensely, have been in the collections of French galleries.

Art Theft: Most Famous Cases in History
3 februari 2010
Art theft is an ancient and complicated crime. When you look at the some of the most famous cases of art thefts in history, you see thoroughly planned operations that involve art dealers, art fakers, mobsters, ransoms, and millions of dollars. Here you can read about some of the most famous cases of art theft in the history.

The Awkward Case for Preserving Holocaust Relics
11 januari 2010
by Michael Scott Moore. The theft in Poland of a Holocaust relic — the Arbeit Macht Frei sign at Auschwitz — had historians and memorialists around the world this month in an uncomfortable posture of outrage. Some of them seemed as upset as jewellers over the theft of the Hope Diamond, which revived a delicate question. How much of the Holocaust needs to be preserved?...

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