[MSN] Exhibition HISTORY LOST, and Colin Renfrew presentation at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Exhibition HISTORY LOST, and Colin Renfrew presentation at the Benaki
Museum, Athens, Greece.

HISTORY LOST

ATHENS: Benaki Museum, September 11 - October 22 2006.
http://www.benaki.gr/

ANEMON PRODUCTIONS, 5 Stisihorou st., 10674 Athens, Greece, Tel: +30
210 7211073, 7229388, Fax: +30 210 7211073, e-mail: info at anemon.gr
http://www.anemon.gr/

2005 Anemon Productions produced The Network, documentary about the
illicit trade in antiquities (read a review of this documentary at
http://www.museum-security.org/thenetwork.html)

The exhibition, and presentation by Colin Renfrew at the Benaki
Museum, October 9, 2006

A multi-media traveling exhibition about the illicit trade of
antiquities in Greece, Cyprus and the world, which will be housed in
four European archaeological museums (Athens, Nicosia, Corinth,
Nemea).

Consisting of an exhibition with texts and illustrations, multimedia
presentations on touch screen surfaces, interactive games and video
screenings, it reaches out to a diverse public, telling the story of
one of the most destructive attacks on world heritage taking place
today.

The exhibition takes place at a time when the ethics of Western
museums are being intensely debated, together with the measures
necessary for the preservation of the world's cultural heritage.
Examples from Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Turkey, Cambodia, Afghanistan and
Iraq are presented -countries which during the last years have
successfully reclaimed antiquities, illegally exported and sold
abroad.

The History Lost exhibition is compact and very informative at a basic
level, aimed at raising awareness about the vast problem of illicit
dealings in cultural property both in source countries and in
'consumer', or market countries. Most unfortunately this far the
exhibition has only been on display in source countries. The struggle
against the illicit trade in antiquities cannot be won without
diminishing the demand for antiquities in consumer countries. Infamous
collectors such as the Levy-Whites, the Fleischmanns, Ortiz, Ferrell,
dubious dealers like Robin Symes, De Medici, Hecht, and museums, such
as The Getty, the Metropolitan, the Japanese Miho, or museums such as
the Leiden, The Netherlands, museum too willingly displaying the Miho
collections, the Royal Academy in London showing the Ortiz collection,
 the Saint Louis Art Museum that bought a looted Egyptian mask from
the convicted Aboutaams dealers, museums in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Munich,
Copenhagen, and several American museums should have seen an
exhibition like History Lost many years ago. Maybe, maybe it would
have opened their eyes in time, and prevented them from getting
involved with unprovenanced antiquities. Again maybe, for former
Metropolitan Mseum director Thomas Hoving wrote in his memoirs Making
the mummies dance, that after 1970, when the Unesco convention on the
Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and
Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property was drafted, the 'age of
piracy was over'.

It only seems satisfactory that this arrogant former museum director
admitted that there was piracy going on before 1970. However, it did
not stop him from buying the Turkish Lydian treasure that was
illicitly excavated. Hoving knew very well it originated from an
illegal dig, hid the treasure for some 15 years in one of the Met
storage rooms, and when finally displaying the hoard deliberately gave
a wrong provenance: East Greece.

The conviction that the age of piracy was over did not stop Hoving
from illicitly buying this treasure, nor did it stop him to force the
Turkish state to spend a huge amount on lawyers to reclaim what was
rightfully theirs.

Besides, what did Hoving do with all those objects that had been
acquired as pirate loot?

Even very recently the present director of the Metropolitan, Philippe
de Montebello, was the main obstacle to return the Euphronios Krater
to Italy, notwithstanding the very obvious fact that the provenance
information Robert Hecht gave Thomas Hoving about this beautiful vase
already 30 years ago appeared to be based on lies.

A major wrong in the problem of illicit antiquities is that the
consumers again and again decide which legal rules and ethical
standards are applicable. Hoving just decided when the age of piracy
was over without doing anything at all to correct the wrongs done
during the age of piracy.

It was quite disappointing that Professor Colin Renfrew started his
October 9, 2006, speech at the Benaki museum with the statement that
'bygones should be bygones' for museums adopting a deontological code
about buying antiquities. It is hard to imagine that the founder of
the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre at the MacDonalds Institute of
Cambridge University really meant the impact of his statement. Renfrew
was most right that there will be no progress without deontological
codes. How to deal with acquisitions that took place in the era before
the deontological code – the age of piracy – is not to decide by
Renfrew nor the museums, dealers or collectors, but by the source
countries that were robbed of their heritage.

Renfrew's speech was larded with examples of museums and dealers
involved with illicit antiquities. It is known that Renfrew hardly has
any inhibitions mentioning names and facts. Contrary, Levy-White ("I
would not call them distinguished"), dubious collectors supported by
dubious museums, the Metropolitan displaying the Levy-White
collection, the Getty giving legality to the Fleischmann collection
that really is nothing less than a for the larger part unprovenanced
antiquities collection, Ortiz and the Royal Academy, the Boston Museum
("on my black list"), and – this really showed courage on Renfrew's
side – the Benaki Museum that recently accepted a donation from Robin
Symes.

The Marion True/Getty deontological code about acquiring antiquities,
stating that the museum will never again buy any antiquities if these
antiquities have not been properly published, was put by Renfrew in
the exact dubious perspective. After accepting this code the Getty
itself put up an exhibition of the unprovenanced Fleischmann
collection and published a catalogue. So, the Getty turned the world
upside down by publishing an unprovenanced antiquities collection thus
paving the road to achieve this collection. After this 20 million
dollars deal Getty curator Marion True received a 450 thousand US
dollars private loan from the Fleischmanns. True was forced to leave
the Getty, sold her house in Los Angeles, and is now living in France
while on trial in Italy. Only recently Greek police confiscated
antiquities with an obscure origin at her villa in Greece.

Well known cases such as the Sevso silver treasue (Bonhams in London
will try to sell this treasure soon), the Lydian, Aidona and Salisbury
hoards were part of Renfrew's speech.

Looting in China ("The Chinese government is not doing enough to stop
looting"), Iraq, Peru (Sipan), Nepal (The Gods are leaving the
country), and Mali (Djenne) were mentioned by Renfew. I really missed
mentioning of presently pending cases such as the Ka Nefer Nefer mask
at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Huari Statue at the Kimbell Art
Museum, or recently recovered antiquities from Peru.


Renfrew did have some very useful recommendations:

-         All respectable museums should publish acquisition codes
(such as the Berlin and Philadelphia Declarations)

-         Source countries should never lend anything to museums
without an acquisition code

-         Source countries should never lend anything to exhibitions
with unprovenanced antiquities.

These recommendations really mean that source countries should never
lend anything to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, for 30 years
after 'the age of piracy was over' this museum still does not have a
deontological code about acquiring antiquities.

The History Lost exhibition is most useful for educational and
awareness building purposes. It deserves plenty changes to be
displayed in important trade countries in Europe and the United
States. Notwithstanding the very approachable design of this
exhibition, and the very clear information it offers one might hope
that Professor Colin Renfrew will always be available to support this
exhibition with his fascinating speeches, for fascinating it was in
this Benaki auditorium with over 400 very interested persons present.

Maybe it was more than just coincidence that on the very day of
Renfrew's speech Greek police managed to confiscate more than 500
Neolithic objects in and Athens raid, and arrest a suspect stating the
objects were family heirlooms. According to Renfrew a reference like
this to the origin of illicit objects would read in auction house
catalogues: "Excavated during World War I, from the collection of a
respectable family in Alexandria". (The founder of the Benaki museum,
Antonis Benakis, originally was from Alexandria).

Ton Cremers
October 14, 2006