More coverage of the discussions over the merits of using legal action to expedite the resolution of the long running dispute between Greece & the UK over the Elgin Marbles.

From:
BBC News

21 June 2012 Last updated at 02:42
To sue or not to sue? Parthenon Marbles activists debate
By Trevor Timpson BBC News

Activists from around the world seeking the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Athens have met in London to discuss their strategy as Greece faces troubled times.

“The Olympics are a four-yearly reminder to the world of all we owe to Greece,” said former MP Eddie O’Hara – who chairs the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.
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Most cases of looted items refer to man made artefacts – or, in the cases where the artefact is the product of a natural phenomenon, it is one that was later discovered & in some sense revered. However, there are other categories of cases such as this one – where an item as been discovered & looted from a country – and which is equally much a case of looting anther country’s heritage for direct profit by the looters.

From:
Financial Times

June 19, 2012 2:06 pm
US sues to return Tyrannosaurus to Mongolia

NEW YORK – US authorities filed a lawsuit seeking to return to Mongolia a 70-million-year-old piece of its cultural heritage – fangs and all.

The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar – a smaller Asian cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex – has been the subject of a months-long legal battle and is now being sought by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, who announced the federal government’s lawsuit on Monday.
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More coverage of the problems of looting & neglect that the current financial crisis is causing for many of Greece’s archaeological sites.

From:
Nature

Cuts leave Greek heritage in ruins
Austerity measures damaging archaeological research.
Leigh Phillips
20 June 2012

The economic and political turmoil in Greece is not just jeopardizing the country’s economic future, it is also having a devastating effect on the country’s rich cultural past, according to archaeologists in Athens.

Last month, the Association of Greek Archaeologists warned that the economic policies dictated by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund would cause “the destruction of both our country and our cultural heritage”. The austerity measures intended to cut government debt have forced the state archaeological service to slash staff numbers by more than 10%, with a further 35–50% reduction possible. Research and excavations are being abandoned. Museums that can no longer afford to pay for security are being plagued by armed robbers. And organized criminals are exploiting the chaos in an explosion of illegal digs and the trafficking of illicitly procured antiquities.
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More than 70% of the National Museum of Afghanistan’s collection was taken by looters during the civil war in the country during the 1990s, but less than 1% of the looted items have been recovered so far. The return of the 600 items recovered by UK customs will go some way to helping them rebuild their collection however.

One has to consider though – that many of the artefacts that sit in our national museums were acquired as the results of similar situations in the past – yet no effort is being made to return them & little consideration is even being given to clearly indicating their provenance to museum visitors.

From:
Museums Association Journal

Stolen artefacts return to Afghanistan
Simon Stephens
06.07.12

About 600 artefacts stolen from Afghanistan that have been seized in Britain are to be returned to Kabul next week.

The transfer has been overseen by the British Museum, London, which has cared for the objects after UK customs officials and police confiscated them.
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The British Museum makes much of its commitment to loaning out artefacts (both in the UK & overseas) – but this always happens very much on their own terms. In many of the cases of disputed artefacts – the ones that people most want to see in their original locations, the museum rejects loans, because of the fact that they can’t guarantee the return.

In the past, Greece has offered to loan other artefacts of equal value to the Parthenon Marbles – a form of collateral, which ought to satisfy such worries, but the museum still won’t consider their requests for a long term (or for that matter any length of) loan of the sculptures.

If some of the Lewis Chessmen can go back on a long term loan (a good starting point for perhaps more to join them one day), then why can’t the same happen to the Elgin Marbles?

From:
Guardian

British Museum vows to help regional collections through tough times
Loans of works to regional museums are part of vital support to struggling sector, says director Neil MacGregor
Mark Brown, arts correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 July 2012 14.46 BST

The British Museum has said that is loaning works to UK museums at an unprecedented level to help them weather waters that are likely to be choppy for at least five years.

Launching the museum’s annual report, the museum’s director, Neil MacGregor, spoke of “new kind of engagement” with museums across the UK to develop the sense of there being “one national collection, one community of scholarship”.
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Following on from the issues of metal detecting, where for many, their only interest in the hobby is for profit, more efforts need to be made to ensure that archaeological finds are reported properly in the UK, as evidenced by the colossal (bearing in mind the size / population of the country) figures for artefacts not being handed over in Northern Ireland.

From:
Irish Central

Public hold on to 1.5 million archaeological finds – fail to hand in finds to museums
Ancient finds stuck in limbo in Northern Ireland
Updated Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 9:56 AM
By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral Staff Writer

Over one and a half million Northern Irish archaeological finds are still in possession of the private companies that unearthed them.

The ancient remains, including pottery, metalwork, and human remains, were discovered by commercial companies redeveloping construction sites for new roads or buildings.
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If efforts are not made to prevent further vandalism, much of the heritage of Timbuktu could be lost in a similar way to the Bamiyan Buddhas some years ago. Once an item is destroyed, it will never be there again – a later recreation can never replace all the detail & the stories that associated themselves with it.

It is worth remembering that the people who are making these actions – against items that have been there for many years – are not representative of Islam, but represent a small extremist minority. At the time this article was written, I was in the South of Morocco – in a little town called M’Hamid at the end of the surfaced road on the fringes of the Sahara. In Morocco, as in Mali, there is a strong tradition of Sufi sites that are revered – but there, it seems to be tolerated & integrated into the country’s culture with few problems – it is something that has always been like that for as long as people can remember & is accepted as an integral part of their religion.

From:
Guardian

Will anyone save Timbuktu from Islamist tomb raiders?
Jonathan Jones
Monday 2 July 2012

Militant fundamentalists are destroying the Malian town’s legacy with pickaxes. Someone must step in to stop this atrocity

What a sick joke. I wrote in the Guardian today about lost art. But looking at the news, I see that some of the world’s great treasures are being destroyed, lost forever, at this moment.

In Timbuktu in Mali, great art is being attacked right now, as if it were an enemy. It is being assaulted, smashed, assailed. The aim is total destruction. The same brand of militant Islamism that deprived the world of the Buddhas of Bamiyan is now being turned on medieval tombs that are among the wonders of Africa.
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There is nothing inherently bad about using a metal detector – but the efforts of many amateur treasure hunters are far closer to looting of the sites than to a documented archaeological excavation.

From:
Yorkshire Post

Battle to stop time bandits selling off our history
Published on Saturday 30 June 2012 06:00

SPECIALIST investigators have launched a nationwide crackdown on rogue metal detectorists amid fears that centuries-old artefacts are being sold on the internet in a global blackmarket trade.

Archaeological experts have revealed there is evidence to suggest historical finds are being bought across the world in a lucrative illicit trade after illegal treasure hunters known as “nighthawks” have targeted internationally-renowned locations.
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Giovanni Battista Lusieri is famous to many as the artist employed by Lord Elgin, who was instrumental in the process of removal of the marbles from the Parthenon.

Originally, Lord Elgin had considered a number of possible artists for his trip – one of who was the (then not so famous & therefore deemed unsuitable for the role) J M W Turner. Lusieri ended up with the job & produced many sketches & paintings of the Parthenon both before & after the removal of the marbles. He stayed in Athens long after Lord Elgin had left & all of the works from this period were unfortunately lost at sea, when the ship carrying them, the Cambria, was wrecked off the coast of Crete in 1828.

A new exhibition looks at some of his other paintings which have survived however – from this one might get an idea of how the works made in Athens would have looked.

From:
Financial Times

July 1, 2012 7:05 pm
Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
By Jackie Wullschlager

This is the first show devoted to the once sought-after painter of monuments and volcanos

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3e8a16ee-c1d8-11e1-b76a-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz20JvOhUDt
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Cultural property, often forma an important part of a country’s cultural identity. In some cases, although it might refer to a physical item, it does not necessarily become directly visible to people in either its original location or its new location – as in this case of the body of Afghan poet Ustad Khalilullah Khalili which is going to be re-interred in Afghanistan.

From:
Oman Tribune

Afghanistan fights to reclaim cultural heroes, restore heritage

KABUL Interred a quarter century ago in Pakistan, the remains of Afghan poet Ustad Khalilullah Khalili now lie in a forlorn corner of Kabul University, brought here to be reburied so that no one else can lay claim to the revered poet-philosopher.

He has no epitaph; only a few wilted bouquets lie at the grave of Afghanistan’s most prominent 20th century poet. Three policemen guard the site.
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It is unclear whether this article refers to the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation, or some other part of UNESCO. It appears to be a different event, although it contains similar representation on the Parthenon Marbles & why Greece thinks that they should be returned to Athens.

From:
Greek Reporter

UNESCO Conference on Antiquities Repatriation
By Marianna Tsatsou on June 27, 2012 in EU, news

UNESCO organized a conference on the protection, theft and repatriation of antiquities all over the world which was held on June 19-22 at its office in Porto, Portugal. Greece was among the participants of the 3rd International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development, and was represented by officials of foreign affairs, education and culture ministries.

During the four-day event, president of the Acropolis Museum D. Pantermalis and director general M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki presented Greece’s appeal to the British Museum for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, to be housed at the modern Acropolis Museum.
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Amongst supporters of the return of the Parthenon Marbles, opinion is heavily divided over whether legal action is likely to be a successful way to resolve the situation. Italy has had a lot of success with such an approach in resent years – despite the fact that not many cases end up going to trial, it shows that the request is a serious one & encourages the parties to enter into proper negotiations rather than ignoring the issue.

From
Greek Reporter

Greek-Australians to File Appeal Against Britain for the Restoration of the Parthenon Marbles
By Areti Kotseli on June 26, 2012 in News

In collaboration with special committees dedicated to the cause across the world, Greek-Australians are prepared to file a lawsuit against Great Britain with regards to the return of the Parthenon Marbles. Greeks of the Diaspora are trying hard to press the British government to return these valuable examples of Greece’s stolen cultural heritage.

The announcement was made during the London International Colloquy on the matter. Undisclosed evidence advancing the existing ethical and legal argument for the return of the marbles was presented during the colloquy, where three campaigning organizations for the Parthenon Marbles from the UK, USA and Australia convened in a historic unified effort.
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