[MSN] Peru's old treasures being looted

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    Peru's old treasures being looted
    <http://www.washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20070413-093813-8915r.htm>

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published April 14, 2007

LIMA, Peru -- Smugglers are sapping Peru's ancient heritage as statues, 
gold finery and other treasures are stolen to meet orders on the 
Internet or be sold on the street, Peruvian and international 
authorities say.
    Peru is the country worst hit in the region by thefts of ancient 
objects -- far more than Bolivia and Mexico, two other nations with a 
heritage of pre-Colombian antiquities, Interpol official Eladio Zamudio 
says.
    The international police agency is investigating several cases of 
stolen art objects from Peru that have passed through the country's 
porous borders to end up in Europe, the United States and elsewhere in 
South America.
    The head of the National Culture Institute, Cecilia Bakula, has 
denounced "the organized gangs that are rampant not only in drugs but in 
stealing cultural heritage."
    In one symbolic case, police in March caught thieves trying to sell 
an old flag to an antiquarian in Lima. It was the same one the Peruvian 
leader Jose de San Martin had used when proclaiming independence from 
Spain in 1820.
    The western South American nation is rich in antiquities from before 
the Inca empire, which ruled much of the region for hundreds of years up 
to the 16th century, as well as artworks dating from the subsequent 
Spanish colonial times.
    Peru's soil yields numerous fossils and archaeological finds -- many 
of which are looted by so-called huaqeros, smugglers who swoop onto 
remote sites at night. This carries a five-year jail term, but looters 
often get away with a fine.
    Authorities say they lack the power and resources to fight back.
    "It's difficult to guard more than 10,000 archaeological sites," 
says Blanca Alva, the institute's official in charge of defending 
heritage. Among Peru's private museums, about 300 do not have their 
holdings inventoried, she adds.
    After looting, the first point of sale is often children hawking 
items on the street to tourists. These valuables have varied from 
antique fabrics to 6-inch-long teeth from a megalodon, a type of 
prehistoric shark.
    Orders for objects also come from the Internet, Interpol says. A 
museum near Lima removed from its displays a wooden statue of the 
mythological god Pachacamac, fearing it would be stolen after offers to 
buy it were made online.
    In remote parts of the Andes Mountains, Miss Alva says, colonial-era 
churches have been stripped of their finery. In the central Mantaro 
Valley, chapels are missing their altarpieces, pictures and other 
religious treasures.
    "Everything has been stolen, including the gold and silver 
chalices," Miss Alva says.
    The stolen goods are trafficked far afield. Interpol is tracking 
cases of items that have wound up in Belgium, France, Spain, Brazil, 
Uruguay and the United States.
    Several years ago, an altar weighing almost half a ton disappeared 
from the church of Challapampa in the south-eastern city of Puno and was 
smuggled across the Bolivian border. It wound up in a Texas art gallery 
but was returned when Peruvian authorities intervened.
    A golden headdress dating from at least as far back as the eighth 
century and valued at $1 million was recovered in London last year.
    Also last year, customs agents seized 114 envelopes containing the 
separated contents of a 397-page 16th-century manuscript stolen from 
Peru's national archives, according to John Alarcon Herrera, head of the 
postal customs authority.
    Other smugglers' tricks include painting over colonial-era pictures 
-- favorite canvases include works from the so-called Cuzco movement of 
religious painting.
    Antique pots, even while being smuggled, are sometimes used as 
containers for cocaine.

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