Stealing History
Roger Atwood - Stealing History
Roger Atwood is an American journalist who specializes in culture and archaeology. Or, in the case of this book, looting and reselling stolen archaeological treasures. The book opens with a chapter where ordinary Iraqis begin to loot the graves only the Saddam's men have been able to loot so far.
(Reading this, I was reminded of news during the Bush Jr's war in Iraq when some antiquities collectors demanded that all the collections in the Iraq's museums should be placed in the open market.)
Of course, this is written in the point of view of a archaeologists, who see ancient artifacts as a source of knowledge about the past. Not the point of view of antiquities trade (who only care about the profits) or the collectors (whose motivation is to own everything they can get their hands on).
And it is not the private collectors who are the only buyers; many museums do so as well. And they have a vested interest to resist any repatriations.
Antiquities lobby has lots of lawyers, lobbyists, and lot of money to fight the cases where museums would have to give back looted items. So they don’t usually have to return anything. Some of the museums on both sides of the Atlantic are happy to use the illicit antiquities market to increase the size of their collections. More the merrier, regardless where the items come from.
Looted artifacts can no longer be used to find more information about the people who created them after their placement is disturbed. Evidence of some ancient societies is largely looted and wiped out; the traces were destroyed in the looting. Sometimes archaeologist have no choice but to to visit collectors to see the looted artifacts to get anything done.
(And at the same time the knowledge of some "ancient cultures" seems to be based on items of dubious provenance and outright archaeological forgery.)
Atwood accompanied some Peruvian looters in their forays into ancient tombs. To looters, antiquities offer a change to alleviate their poverty (they never earn enough to really be rich, most of the money goes to the middlemen). To them archaeologists are high-profile competitors who take the items to museums (ie. the public collectors) and they get nothing. The loot must be sold fast both because of risk that the police finds out and because later dealers would think that the previous dealers have already rejected it.
And this is just the beginning of the chain. The items may pass through places like free ports in Zurich and Geneva airpots, that gives the stolen items fake European provenance. They are received by "ghost receivers" who then "sell" them further.
Atwood also writes about Walter Alva, Peruvian archaeologist who started the excavation of Sipan as an emergency operation (before the death of his wife) and managed to get funding and support for it. Many did not believe there was anything left and the collectors did not want to support excavations that would not enlarge their collections.
However, the huge gold backflap stolen from Sipan became too notorious to be sold for three years. It was too risky to buy, even if it was worth six figures.
This is essentially a book about the dark underbelly of archaeology and antiquities trade with ambitions and greed to die with the most toys, the older the better. What it does not address is archaeological forgery - with its own ideology and religious passions.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/4748.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Roger Atwood is an American journalist who specializes in culture and archaeology. Or, in the case of this book, looting and reselling stolen archaeological treasures. The book opens with a chapter where ordinary Iraqis begin to loot the graves only the Saddam's men have been able to loot so far.
(Reading this, I was reminded of news during the Bush Jr's war in Iraq when some antiquities collectors demanded that all the collections in the Iraq's museums should be placed in the open market.)
Of course, this is written in the point of view of a archaeologists, who see ancient artifacts as a source of knowledge about the past. Not the point of view of antiquities trade (who only care about the profits) or the collectors (whose motivation is to own everything they can get their hands on).
And it is not the private collectors who are the only buyers; many museums do so as well. And they have a vested interest to resist any repatriations.
Antiquities lobby has lots of lawyers, lobbyists, and lot of money to fight the cases where museums would have to give back looted items. So they don’t usually have to return anything. Some of the museums on both sides of the Atlantic are happy to use the illicit antiquities market to increase the size of their collections. More the merrier, regardless where the items come from.
Looted artifacts can no longer be used to find more information about the people who created them after their placement is disturbed. Evidence of some ancient societies is largely looted and wiped out; the traces were destroyed in the looting. Sometimes archaeologist have no choice but to to visit collectors to see the looted artifacts to get anything done.
(And at the same time the knowledge of some "ancient cultures" seems to be based on items of dubious provenance and outright archaeological forgery.)
Atwood accompanied some Peruvian looters in their forays into ancient tombs. To looters, antiquities offer a change to alleviate their poverty (they never earn enough to really be rich, most of the money goes to the middlemen). To them archaeologists are high-profile competitors who take the items to museums (ie. the public collectors) and they get nothing. The loot must be sold fast both because of risk that the police finds out and because later dealers would think that the previous dealers have already rejected it.
And this is just the beginning of the chain. The items may pass through places like free ports in Zurich and Geneva airpots, that gives the stolen items fake European provenance. They are received by "ghost receivers" who then "sell" them further.
Atwood also writes about Walter Alva, Peruvian archaeologist who started the excavation of Sipan as an emergency operation (before the death of his wife) and managed to get funding and support for it. Many did not believe there was anything left and the collectors did not want to support excavations that would not enlarge their collections.
However, the huge gold backflap stolen from Sipan became too notorious to be sold for three years. It was too risky to buy, even if it was worth six figures.
This is essentially a book about the dark underbelly of archaeology and antiquities trade with ambitions and greed to die with the most toys, the older the better. What it does not address is archaeological forgery - with its own ideology and religious passions.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/4748.html. Please comment there using OpenID.