[CPProt.net] Marine's mementos turn out to be 5, 000 years old / Pillaging of Iraq has mushroomed

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

 Marine's mementos turn out to be 5,000 years old  
  By David Johnston The New York Times  

  Tuesday, February 15, 2005 
Pillaging of Iraq has mushroomed
 
WASHINGTON In 2003, a marine at a U.S. military base in southern Iraq bought
eight carved stones from a trinket vendor for several hundred dollars. When
he returned to New York, he took the stones to an archaeology professor at
Columbia University, who concluded they were ancient artifacts, some dating
back 5,000 years.
.
The FBI, which has recovered the stones, will return them on Wednesday to
the Iraqi authorities at a ceremony at the University of Pennsylvania's
archaeology museum, which plans to display the pieces - before they are
returned to Iraq - as an example of the continuing threat to the country's
cultural heritage.
.
The stones, called cylinder seals, constitute a fraction of the antiquities
believed to have been looted from Iraq since the U.S. invasion, according to
law enforcement officials and archaeologists.
.
The artifacts include catalogued objects taken from museums and a large but
uncertain number of items, like the cylinder seals, that were pillaged from
archeological sites around the country.
.
Zainab Bahrani, the archeology professor at Columbia University in New York
to whom the marine took the stones last year, said looting in Iraq had
increased almost uncontrollably since the U.S.-led occupation. "Tens of
thousands of objects have just gone completely missing in the past two
years," she said. "It's a cultural disaster of massive proportions."
.
The account of the eight cylinder seals was provided by Bahrani and the
federal authorities.
.
Law enforcement officials would not identify the marine, and he declined to
be interviewed.
.
The case is the first recovery of looted Iraqi artifacts by the FBI since
the war started, although last month immigration and customs officials
returned to Iraq three cylinder seals found in the suitcase of a scholar
arriving at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
.
"Part of the investigative duty of the FBI is investigating the looting of
archeological objects that come into the country, and we are interested in
stopping that threat," said Robert Whitman, senior investigator on the
bureau's art crime team. The team was recently established to address art
fraud, stolen art and the widening antiquities trade.
.
A senior counterterrorism official said the trade in illicit antiquities was
increasingly run by organized rings of professional thieves, who use poor
Iraqis in rural areas as diggers. Objects are funneled out of the country in
concealed shipments along smuggling routes that have been plied for
centuries, in a system in which artifacts are sold for cash or sometimes for
weapons that wind up in the hands of insurgents in Iraq. Some archaeological
experts estimate that the illegal antiquities trade may pump tens of
millions of dollars into the underground economy in Iraq.
.
Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, alluded to the issue in a speech last
November, saying that the British authorities had concluded in 2003 that
"there is a link between the removal and transport of cultural objects and
the funding of terrorism." Mueller did not identify the countries or the
terrorist organizations to which he was referring.
.
The bureau has long had agents who specialize in investigating art crimes,
but for the first time has deployed agents trained to fight this kind of
illegal activity in a regional network. "Art crimes fall into three basic
categories: art theft, including antiquities; fraud; and forgery," said
James Wynne, of the FBI's New York office. The new approach, he said, "is a
good way to keep us relevant and get good cases opened around the country."
.
The eight cylinder seals bought by the marine date to the Mesopotamian
period. Images were carved into the stones and the cylinders were then
rolled over clay or wax, leaving an imprint that identified the owner. The
symbols were used to safeguard doors, bags, boxes or other property.
.
When the marine took the carefully boxed seals to Bahrani at her campus
office, she immediately knew what they were. She recalled opening the box
and saying "Oh, my God." The marine bought the seals suspecting that they
might be archaeologically significant, according to law enforcement
officials.
.
After meeting with Bahrani, FBI officials said, the marine turned over the
seals to the bureau in Philadelphia, where agents have jurisdiction over
cases in the United States that are related to the looting of the Iraqi
National Museum after Baghdad fell.
.
Although it is a crime to bring such artifacts into the United States, law
enforcement officials said the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia formally
declined to prosecute. Officials praised the marine for turning over the
seals.
.
It is not known how often troops remove archaeological materials from Iraq.
They are warned against taking antiquities before they leave the United
States and again after they arrive in Iraq, said Major Flora Lee, a Pentagon
spokeswoman in Baghdad. Moreover, she said, equipment and personal property
is searched before troops leave Iraq, and packages are examined before being
shipped. It is unclear how the marine got the eight seals out of the
country.
.
Early accounts of looting at the museum in Baghdad indicated that as many as
170,000 objects had been taken in the chaotic two days after April 9, 2003,
when the city fell to U.S.-led forces. Those accounts later turned out to be
overstated, but museum officials in the United States still believe that
10,000 to 15,000 objects are missing.
.
Far less is known about the looters who are believed to be removing a large
quantity of archaeologically significant objects at sites throughout Iraq.
.
John Malcolm Russell, a professor of art history at the Massachusetts
College of Art who was a senior cultural adviser to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq, estimated that in the last two years,
hundreds of thousands of significant cultural artifacts have been taken,
possibly as many as 400,000 to 600,000 pieces. That, he said, translates to
a trade worth $10 million to $20 million a year.
.
.
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International Herald Tribune. 
.
< < Back to Start of Article Pillaging of Iraq has mushroomed
 
WASHINGTON In 2003, a marine at a U.S. military base in southern Iraq bought
eight carved stones from a trinket vendor for several hundred dollars. When
he returned to New York, he took the stones to an archaeology professor at
Columbia University, who concluded they were ancient artifacts, some dating
back 5,000 years.
.
The FBI, which has recovered the stones, will return them on Wednesday to
the Iraqi authorities at a ceremony at the University of Pennsylvania's
archaeology museum, which plans to display the pieces - before they are
returned to Iraq - as an example of the continuing threat to the country's
cultural heritage.
.
The stones, called cylinder seals, constitute a fraction of the antiquities
believed to have been looted from Iraq since the U.S. invasion, according to
law enforcement officials and archaeologists.
.
The artifacts include catalogued objects taken from museums and a large but
uncertain number of items, like the cylinder seals, that were pillaged from
archeological sites around the country.
.
Zainab Bahrani, the archeology professor at Columbia University in New York
to whom the marine took the stones last year, said looting in Iraq had
increased almost uncontrollably since the U.S.-led occupation. "Tens of
thousands of objects have just gone completely missing in the past two
years," she said. "It's a cultural disaster of massive proportions."
.
The account of the eight cylinder seals was provided by Bahrani and the
federal authorities.
.
Law enforcement officials would not identify the marine, and he declined to
be interviewed.
.
The case is the first recovery of looted Iraqi artifacts by the FBI since
the war started, although last month immigration and customs officials
returned to Iraq three cylinder seals found in the suitcase of a scholar
arriving at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
.
"Part of the investigative duty of the FBI is investigating the looting of
archeological objects that come into the country, and we are interested in
stopping that threat," said Robert Whitman, senior investigator on the
bureau's art crime team. The team was recently established to address art
fraud, stolen art and the widening antiquities trade.
.
A senior counterterrorism official said the trade in illicit antiquities was
increasingly run by organized rings of professional thieves, who use poor
Iraqis in rural areas as diggers. Objects are funneled out of the country in
concealed shipments along smuggling routes that have been plied for
centuries, in a system in which artifacts are sold for cash or sometimes for
weapons that wind up in the hands of insurgents in Iraq. Some archaeological
experts estimate that the illegal antiquities trade may pump tens of
millions of dollars into the underground economy in Iraq.
.
Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, alluded to the issue in a speech last
November, saying that the British authorities had concluded in 2003 that
"there is a link between the removal and transport of cultural objects and
the funding of terrorism." Mueller did not identify the countries or the
terrorist organizations to which he was referring.
.
The bureau has long had agents who specialize in investigating art crimes,
but for the first time has deployed agents trained to fight this kind of
illegal activity in a regional network. "Art crimes fall into three basic
categories: art theft, including antiquities; fraud; and forgery," said
James Wynne, of the FBI's New York office. The new approach, he said, "is a
good way to keep us relevant and get good cases opened around the country."
.
The eight cylinder seals bought by the marine date to the Mesopotamian
period. Images were carved into the stones and the cylinders were then
rolled over clay or wax, leaving an imprint that identified the owner. The
symbols were used to safeguard doors, bags, boxes or other property.
.
When the marine took the carefully boxed seals to Bahrani at her campus
office, she immediately knew what they were. She recalled opening the box
and saying "Oh, my God." The marine bought the seals suspecting that they
might be archaeologically significant, according to law enforcement
officials.
.
After meeting with Bahrani, FBI officials said, the marine turned over the
seals to the bureau in Philadelphia, where agents have jurisdiction over
cases in the United States that are related to the looting of the Iraqi
National Museum after Baghdad fell.
.
Although it is a crime to bring such artifacts into the United States, law
enforcement officials said the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia formally
declined to prosecute. Officials praised the marine for turning over the
seals.
.
It is not known how often troops remove archaeological materials from Iraq.
They are warned against taking antiquities before they leave the United
States and again after they arrive in Iraq, said Major Flora Lee, a Pentagon
spokeswoman in Baghdad. Moreover, she said, equipment and personal property
is searched before troops leave Iraq, and packages are examined before being
shipped. It is unclear how the marine got the eight seals out of the
country.
.
Early accounts of looting at the museum in Baghdad indicated that as many as
170,000 objects had been taken in the chaotic two days after April 9, 2003,
when the city fell to U.S.-led forces. Those accounts later turned out to be
overstated, but museum officials in the United States still believe that
10,000 to 15,000 objects are missing.
.
Far less is known about the looters who are believed to be removing a large
quantity of archaeologically significant objects at sites throughout Iraq.
.
John Malcolm Russell, a professor of art history at the Massachusetts
College of Art who was a senior cultural adviser to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq, estimated that in the last two years,
hundreds of thousands of significant cultural artifacts have been taken,
possibly as many as 400,000 to 600,000 pieces. That, he said, translates to
a trade worth $10 million to $20 million a year

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