[CPProt.net] The FBI has recovered their first looted cultural property from Iraq, and the Art Crime Team (ACT) is determined that it will not be their last.

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Looted Iraqi artifacts are found in Delaware County  
By Melissa McDermott , STAFF WRITER  

PHILADELPHIA - The FBI has recovered their first looted cultural property
from Iraq, and the Art Crime Team (ACT) is determined that it will not be
their last. 
"They were brought to the U.S. by a young Marine in Iraq," said John
Eckenrode, Philadelphia Division, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI last
week. "He purchased these seals not knowing they had been looted. An
archaeologist informed him that they were real, and it was illegal to remove
them and they had to be given to the proper authorities. Today,
symbolically, I'm here to accomplish that for him."
  
FBI Special Agent Bob Wittman recovered eight ancient Iraqi cylinder seals
in Springfield last month. 


Archeologists have stated that the seals were made between 3500-2500 B.C.
and are valued at $2,000 to $5,000 each, according to a press release.


Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie, Permanent Representative of Iraq to the
United Nations, was scheduled to accept the return of the artifacts, but
could not make it. Said Ahmad, Minister Plenipotentiary, Mission of Iraq to
the United Nations, stepped in. 


"We celebrate today the recovery of eight Iraqi cylinders," said Ahmad. "We
appreciate the efforts made by the people of the United States to cooperate
with us and to return part of the items looted from Iraq."


Iraq's cultural institutions, and the world's cultural heritage, suffered
irreparable blows in the disorder that followed Operation Iraqi Freedom in
March and April of 2003, according to a report by Richard Zettler, Associate
Curator of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology's Near East Section.


Libraries and museums in Baghdad and other cities, including Iraq's National
Museum, were looted and/ or burned.


The museum closed with the first Gulf War in 1991 and reopened in April of
2000, according to Zettler's report. Much of the museum's collection had
been stored before hostilities began. More than 4,000 artifacts carried off
have been returned. However, 10,000 to 15,000 objects are still missing,
including almost 5,000 cylinder seals.


While looting of archaeological sites was contained under Iraq's strict
antiquities laws, the situation changed after the first Gulf War, according
to Zettler's report. As Baghdad's control weakened and the economic impact
of U.N. sanctions increased, people began to loot sites.


Before the eight cylinders are officially returned, they will be safely
stored at the University of Pennsylvania Archaeology and Anthropology Museum
for three months. 


"I hope there are more recoveries in the future," said Richard Leventhal,
the Williams Director for the University of Pennsylvania Museum. "It's very
critical that they remain in their host countries. I worked in Central
America so I've seen looting. It's not only the loss of an item, but a loss
of information."


Zettler agrees.


"If an artifact is ripped from the ground, we will never know whether it was
found in a house where it was originally used, or a trash dump where it was
discarded, or a burial," Zettler wrote in a report. "Each of those contexts
would likely provide archaeologists with different kinds of information
about ancient Mesopotamia."


"I worked in Iraq in the 1970s," said Zettler, "It's the first
administrative and legal technology that Ancient Mesopotamia employed. It's
a good documentation of early Mesopotamian artifacts."


Zettler added that while digging in Iraq, finding a cylinder seal was very
rare, and that recovering eight is very exciting. 


"Recovery rates are very low," said Debra Pierce, Deputy Assistant Director
of the Criminal Investigative Division for the FBI.


In fact, of objects reported to the National Stolen Art File, about 5
percent are recovered, according to a report.


"Cultural property theft and looting has become the fourth largest
international crime in the world, according to Interpol," said Wittman.
(Interpol is an International Crime Police organization.) "The U.S. is the
largest consumer country for art and artifacts, which we buy rather than
ship out. In response, the FBI has joined our neighboring countries such as
England, France, Italy and Spain and formed a national art crime squad."


The team is comprised of eight agents who will each have a regional
responsibility. There are two from New York, two from California, three from
the Midwest and Wittman in Philadelphia. 


FBI offices will investigate allegations of cultural property crime, art
theft and art fraud.


The task force has two goals, according to Bruce Ohr, Chief of Organized
Crime and Racketeering for the Department of Justice. One is to gather more
attention to enhance the effectiveness of ACT so that people know that there
is somebody out there to call and to send a message to art thieves. "The FBI
is on watch to make sure these cases are prosecuted."


Unlike drugs or other illegal objects, cultural property itself is not
illegal to have and moves easily across international borders. In 1991,
about 10 percent of objects recovered were outside of the country of theft,
while by 1997, 30 percent of recovered objects had been transported outside
of the country of theft, according to the report. Due to a lack of
regulation, the U.S. provides a lucrative market for those dealing in stolen
cultural property.


Illicit trafficking of cultural property is often associated with organized
crime, money laundering, extortion and fraud. In some instances, artwork has
been traded for drugs.


"In 2002, [the U.S. Department of Justice] implemented harsher penalties,"
said Pierce. The United States Sentencing Commission decided that the theft
and/or damage of cultural property and archaeological sites should be more
severely punished than general property crimes due to the fact that cultural
heritage resource crimes transcend monetary considerations and involve
irreplaceable objects, according to a report.


"The value of the artifact would be a relevant factor," U.S. District
Attorney Patrick Meehan said.


Destruction of archaeological sites, however, are not a new problem,
according to the report. Looting was particularly severe in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, when the British Museum and the Louvre acquired
hundreds of thousands of cuneiform tablets that constitute the core of their
collections today.


An average of 60,000 objects are stolen from Europe each year, many from
museums and churches, and Chinese authorities believe antiquities are now
the largest single class of items smuggled out of their country, according
to a report from the FBI Art Crime Team. 


The Art Crime team will be coordinated through the FBI's Art Theft Program
at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The agents will receive specialized
training in art and cultural property investigations. The initial training
was held in Philadelphia from Jan. 10 to 14. Two special trial attorneys
will work with the Art Crime Team to provide prosecutive support. 

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