Egypt

Antiquities OPEC?

TIME (Richard Lacayo)

Greece and Italy have taken a step towards joint action in the smuggle struggle — the fight to regain illegally exported antiquities. (via) Greek Minister of Culture Mihalis Liapis was in Rome this week to meet with his Italian counterpart Sandro Bondi to discuss ways to coordinate efforts for the return of looted work.

For now it's not clear what their joint ventures will amount to. Somewhat garbled press reports mention technical cooperation between Greek and Italian law enforcement. But as more "source nations" reach out to one another to cooperate on this issue, Derek Fincham, on his Illicit Cultural Property blog, is wondering about the eventual possibility of what he calls "an antiquities OPEC". I'm not sure the analogy holds — OPEC is powerful because it sits on top of a natural resource that, at the end of the day, the world requires. Antiquities source nations have.....antiquities.

But as I read Fincham's post this morning I was reminded that last fall, when I was working on a lengthy Time story about the fight over antiquities, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and one of the most visible figures in this fight, mentioned in an e-mail that he hoped to organize an international meeting of source nations this year. But I haven't seen any further news on that idea.

See the above page for the full story

- Hawass Address To Unesco
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass) See the above page for the full address. Although I have resigned from my position as head of the antiquities department, due to the current situation, I will continue to do everything in my power to help my country fight against...

- Repatriation: More Re Rosetta
Daily Times, Pakistan Egypt will host a conference in April for countries demanding the return of their antiquities, stolen but on display in museums round the world, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said. The conference will “discuss the question...

- Repatriation: It's Not Just Egypt
Sydney Morning Herald (Jason Koutsoukis) Egypt will host an international conference next March for countries seeking the return of ancient indigenous treasures being kept in foreign museums. The secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities,...

- Museums And Controversial Antiquities
http://tinyurl.com/jag7z (Business Week)A useful overview of the current state of play following the recent spate of claims by countries who believe that they have the right to demand the repatriation of antiquities currently held by foreign museums....

- Who Owns The Past?
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/14024323.htm "Zahi Hawass, Egypt's top man in charge of antiquities, has asked the St. Louis Art Museum to return a 3,200 year-old mummy mask the museum purchased in 1998, which it believed was...

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