contraband. The bronze and ceramic figures, probably from Iraq were seized in Jordan in 2005.
The high-level meeting in Berlin “heritage in danger” illustrates the extent of the illegal art trade. Stricter laws against looting and flog ancient treasures are essential. Germany also has an obligation.
Dumb and marble beautiful they stand, the classical sculptures in the rotunda of the Altes Museum. A cultural and educational temple of the 19th century as a stage of ancient works of art, since 1999, a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Schinkel’s rotunda tells of a time when the ethics and aesthetics of ancient civilizations have been Richtmaß for the present. And were dissolved as antiques such as self-evident from their home context to be traded, collected and exhibited at the strange place.
That evening, the gods of Olympus must leave a lesson endure that anything but uplifting is: The archaeologist Neil Brodie by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow speak on “Transnational Organized Crime and antiques trade.” It is the more shocking than festive evening presentation of an international conference that the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation under the title “Cultural in danger. Illegal excavations and trafficking “have held on Thursday and Friday at the Foreign Office
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Culture Minister Monika Grütters promises a new cultural Protection Act 2015
The Meeting clearly shows that the issue has finally reached the politics and the public in addition to the professional world – not least because of the news about the financing of the IS-terrorists stolen cultural objects from the region. The largest meeting room at the Foreign Office is barely enough to accommodate the visiting government officials from around the world as the new Egyptian Cultural Minister Mamdouh Mohamed Gad El-Damaty and archaeologists, lawyers, police officers and art dealers. Culture Minister Monika Grütters announces in her welcome address the long overdue presentation of the new cultural Protection Act for mid-2015, “one of the most important legislative projects of my house.” Archaeological objects should be allowed to continue to be introduced only with valid export permits from the country of origin to Germany, a kind of “Antique passport”, which contains meaningful information as possible.
solves the new import regime that little practical list of procedures currently in force in Germany Cultural Property Restitution Act from 2007 on, with the date not a single return to your country of origin could be achieved. Current legislation Germany for several decades is one of the main hubs of illicit art trade – ascending tendency
. The thieves and dealers can almost always find buyers in the rich West
At the beginning of the value chain are thieves and looters who often act out of sheer economic necessity, at its end customers almost always in the West. In Neil Brodie case examples, the auction houses such as Sotheby’s and museums such as the Getty Museum in Malibu or the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
The case in 2005 ousted and Italy for receiving stolen goods, smuggling of national treasures and indirect aid indicted for illegal excavations Getty curator Marion True went through the media, as well as the return of 40 stolen antiquities of the museum to the Italian State. True felt after their exposure as a pawn. Her case highlights an operating system, which is the risk that hot commodity on smugglers and middlemen lands in prestigious Western institutions and collections, long time, if not, it hinnahm as a minor offense as collateral damage museum ambitions.
That the judgment Experts money’s worth, Brodie demonstrated by the case of Khmer sculptures from Koh Ker in Cambodia who have been placed in a 2011 Sotheby’s auction, among others, the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Prior to the provenance had been doctored. Is it only succeeded in involving renowned trading platforms such as the large, constantly looking for fresh produce market gent auction houses, the profit margins are considerable. The 2011 arrested at Frankfurt airport art dealer Subhash Kapoor as mediated stolen Indian temple sculptures of the 11th century to the Metropolitan Museum in New York or – for 5.6 million US dollars – at the National Gallery of Australia. All these works had now returned
{expert Müller-Karpe Museum. Legal imported into Germany antiques are rare exception
Such examples rather the exception , The discovery and return of stolen, transported by illegal excavations brought to light and unguarded borders smuggled archaeological objects succeed in the rarest of cases. Experts count the illegal trafficking of archaeological objects now in addition to drug and arms trafficking to the common branches of international crime. Estimates indicate global sales annually 2-10 billion dollars. Is dealt not only with lace goods. In easy-to-find countless Internet portals Allerweltsobjekte such as coins or oil lamps are traded, their material value is only a few euros and its content is lost on scientific information after the violent removal from the Fund context forever. Coins and pottery shards are archaeologists has always been to date. In their absence, the excavated ruins remain speechless
Museums have to live with legacies. Prominent examples are the Elgin Marbles
That is in addition to the criminal also is a legal trade in antiquities, is at the meeting only marginal issue. Art dealers come with the exception of Ursula Kampmann, the Cultural Heritage Protection Officer of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA), just off the podium to speak. Although the IADAA with 32 members representing a tiny fraction of Ancient trade, people are going since 1993 standards should be adhered to in the discussion of the new German Cultural Protection Act. In Switzerland, where there is a relatively strict law since 2005, benefiting the antiquities trade from the image gain a “clean” market. That such a thing is enforceable, is disputed by archaeologists with experience in the field. Recently procured the Freiburg antiques dealer Günter Puhze – also a member IADAA – a restraining order against Michael Müller-Karpe from the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. Puhze thought it was bad for busines s that Müller-Karpe in a television report an association between traded in the west antiquities from Syria and Iraq, their presumed illegal origin, the destruction of archaeological sites by illicit excavations and the financing of IS-terrorism produced.
In Berlin Müller-Karpe sets even after the number and looks legal to Germany imported antiques “in tenths of a percent.” The widespread provenance stating “old nobility collection,” says the Mainz museum-man, “compiled before the entry into force of the legal export bans in countries of origin, is a fairy tale. Ancient unknown origin not from the attic and not from a Swiss family-owned “
Müller-Karpes polemic touched at all shortening something fundamental:. The moral and ethical dimension of possession of ancient antiquities. For centuries, they are out of their countries of origin – whether from the Mediterranean, from East Asia, Africa and Central and South America – removed to serve public education interests, individual curiosity or private property claims in the rich, ancient enthusiastic west. Almost every museum collection has to live with this legacy, the most prominent example are the Elgin Marbles in the Britsh Museum. Kluge museum professionals as the director of the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities Andreas Scholl, of the end of museum acquisitions and the era of long-term permanent loan exclaims at the meeting have already responded.
Even if the current images threatened by war and plundered by grave robbers archaeological sites, especially in the Middle East – alone in the northern Iraqi province of Mosul, there are about 1500 – underscore the drama of the situation, the problem is an old one, also a much too long carryover. 1970 UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property authoritative, 1995 he was the legal concrete Unidroit Convention. The 1970 Convention has joined the Federal Republic in 2007, as one of the last of now 123 Parties. Culture Minister Monika Grütters has made it clear in Berlin that the cultural nation Germany must also meet their responsibilities under international law. Too much is at stake.
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