Egypt
Times Online (Ben Mcintyre)
- Glasgow Team Gets £1m Grant To Study Illegal Trade In Antiquities
The Guardian, UK Every year, artefacts and antiquities of cultural significance are looted and smuggled around the world, often turning up in private collections or even museums. Last year, a number of objects were stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo...
- Can Egypt Protect Its Heritage?
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass) As those of you who have followed my website know, there was some looting and land grabbing, and even the Egyptian Museum was vandalized and robbed. At one point, I myself resigned in protest when I felt that the authorities...
- Resistance To The Recent Unesco Visit To Egypt
Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref, 21st March) A little bit out of date now, but interesting. A UNESCO delegate is set to visit Egypt to help recuperate looted ancient artefacts post-revolution, but there is no Egyptian antiquities minister, and to boot...
- Museums Should Dig In
The New York Times (Bernard Frischer) THIS [last] year saw the end of the five-year-long trial here of Marion True, a former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The case against her — for the purchase of art allegedly looted...
- Addressing The Call For Objects To Be Repatriated
The Daily Mail, Islamabad You will need to scroll down to the second story on the page. HEADS are in the news this week. China has demanded the return of two 18th century bronze animal heads that belonged to the late French fashion designer Yves Saint...
Egypt
New ways to combat looters
Times Online (Ben Mcintyre)
Numerous attempts have been made to stamp out the trade in stolen artefacts, and a number of prominent curators and dealers have recently been prosecuted for handling stolen goods. But still the market for looted antiquities expands, fed by a growing demand from the Middle East, Japan and China. Where once a rich man might adorn his palace with tiger skins and the heads of rare rhino, collectors now bag shards of Sumerian pottery and Buddhist carvings, trophy art to demonstrate wealth and sophistication.The comparison between big game hunting and the hunt for smuggled artefacts is apt, for archaeologists are turning to the lessons of wildlife conservation in their efforts to protect the world’s most threatened sites. The answer to the plague of looting may lie with the endangered elephant.
Looters of ancient sites are operating in precisely the same way as poachers hunting elephant, rhino or apes: ivory, rhino horn and bush meat attain their value by a combination of illegality and rarity. One solution may be to treat ancient sites as, in effect, protected wildlife preserves, which visitors pay to visit just as they pay to see rare animals in their natural surroundings.
See the above page for the full story.
- Glasgow Team Gets £1m Grant To Study Illegal Trade In Antiquities
The Guardian, UK Every year, artefacts and antiquities of cultural significance are looted and smuggled around the world, often turning up in private collections or even museums. Last year, a number of objects were stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo...
- Can Egypt Protect Its Heritage?
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass) As those of you who have followed my website know, there was some looting and land grabbing, and even the Egyptian Museum was vandalized and robbed. At one point, I myself resigned in protest when I felt that the authorities...
- Resistance To The Recent Unesco Visit To Egypt
Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref, 21st March) A little bit out of date now, but interesting. A UNESCO delegate is set to visit Egypt to help recuperate looted ancient artefacts post-revolution, but there is no Egyptian antiquities minister, and to boot...
- Museums Should Dig In
The New York Times (Bernard Frischer) THIS [last] year saw the end of the five-year-long trial here of Marion True, a former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The case against her — for the purchase of art allegedly looted...
- Addressing The Call For Objects To Be Repatriated
The Daily Mail, Islamabad You will need to scroll down to the second story on the page. HEADS are in the news this week. China has demanded the return of two 18th century bronze animal heads that belonged to the late French fashion designer Yves Saint...