[MSN] The silver missing from the Sevso hoard? (Also read Colin Renfrew's comment at the end of the article)

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The silver missing from the Sevso hoard?

Documents seen by The Art Newspaper reveal that five bowls, 37 cups and 187
spoons were offered with the 14 pieces which make up the Roman treasure

By Cristina Ruiz | Posted 01 March 2007 

   
 The Maquess of Northampton is selling these 14 pieces of Roman silver,
known as the Sevso Hoard 
 
 
LONDON/BUDAPEST. The Sevso treasure, the most spectacular hoard of Roman
silver ever discovered, may be incomplete. Documents seen by The Art
Newspaper reveal that “187 silvergilt spoons, 37 silvergilt drinking cups,
and 5 silver bowls” were available for sale along with the 14 known pieces
of Sevso silver in the 1980s. These additional objects have never been seen
publicly and their existence has hitherto been unknown. 

We have also confirmed that in 1988, five years after the Getty Museum
turned down ten known objects from the Sevso hoard over concerns about the
Lebanese export licences accompanying the silver, the museum was privately
shown another silver plate by two US dealers. Known as the “Chi-rho” plate
because of an engraving of the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek,
it was described by the dealers as part of the Sevso hoard. The museum did
not buy it. 

These revelations come as the Marquess of Northampton has declared his
intention to sell the 14 pieces of fourth and fifth-century AD silver he
acquired in the 1980s which comprise the known Sevso hoard. These were shown
privately at Bonhams in London last October after 16 years in storage. 

The proposed sale has angered archaeologists since Hungary has long argued
that the Sevso hoard was discovered in the Lake Balaton area and was
illegally exported. 

Lord Northampton’s previous attempt to sell the silver through Sotheby’s in
1990 resulted in the hoard being impounded in New York as Hungary,
Yugoslavia and Lebanon filed suits arguing that the treasure had been
discovered in their territory and illicitly exported. Lebanon dropped its
claim before the case came to trial largely because the Lebanese export
licences which accompanied the silver had been found to be fake. In November
1993, after years of litigation, the New York Supreme Court ruled that
Hungary and Yugoslavia had failed to produce sufficient evidence and
dismissed their claims. No legal challenge to the Marquess’s title has been
made since. 

The Marquess of Northampton later sued his former London legal advisors,
Allen & Overy, for damages in relation to advice given during the purchase
of the silver. The claim was settled by payment of an undisclosed sum
believed to be around £25m. 

But the question of where the silver had been discovered and under what
circumstances remain unresolved, making the story of the Sevso hoard one of
the longest running mysteries in the art world. 

New evidence 

The papers seen by The Art Newspaper include a document from Halim Korban,
the Lebanese dealer who sold the Sevso hoard in installments to Rainer
Zietz, a German-born London-based dealer and Peter Wilson, former chairman
of Sotheby’s, on behalf of Anton Tcalek, a Yugoslav Serb based in Vienna. 

The document is addressed to Guernroy Ltd, a division of the Royal Bank of
Canada in Guernsey, which provided Lord Northampton with the funding to
become a third partner in the Sevso investment and also funded his purchase
of additional pieces of silver. 


The undated document states: “We hereby guarantee the following for...future
purchases:...Delivery of the remaining silver objects from the hoard (187
silvergilt spoons, 37 silvergilt drinking cups, and 5 silver bowls)...
Guernroy Ltd shall have the first option to buy these objects from us in the
future.” The document is in the name of Halim Korban and his company Hadrian
Trading Co. Ltd. 

A second document seen by The Art Newspaper, is a letter dated 6th April
1987 from the Guernsey-based Ferico Trust Ltd to “Ramiz Risk, Esq., P.O. Box
8, Brummana, Lebanon” which states: “Dear Mr Risk, as Trustees of the
Marquess of Northampton 1987 Settlement, we authorise you to obtain legal
export licences from the Lebanon for various pieces of silver which have
been purchased for the Trust.” The letter continues: “We agree to forward
you up to US$500,000 for these licences.” It then refers to the additional
pieces of Sevso silver: “You have also agreed to obtain export licences for
the remainder of the hoard which we understand to be various cups and
spoons, at a price under half the cost of the first three licences.” 

Richard Hobbs, a British Museum curator who has examined around 2,000 Roman
hoards found across the Roman world, says: “It is not surprising to discover
that there are allegedly additional pieces to the Sevso hoard. The 14 known
pieces of silver consist of tableware for dining and vessels which would
have been used for washing or storing ointments. The spoons, cups, and bowls
would complete the set.” 

Yet more Sevso silver? 

In addition to the objects listed in these documents, other silver objects
said to come from the Sevso hoard are on the market. We have confirmed that
in 1988 the so-called “Chi-rho” plate was privately shown and offered to the
Getty Museum in Los Angeles by two US dealers who described it as part of
the Sevso hoard. The museum did not buy it. 

The plate reportedly takes its name from an engraving of the first two
letters of Christ’s name in Greek letters at its centre. A Chi-rho symbol
also appears on the Hunting Plate, one of the 14 known pieces of Sevso
silver. 

Northampton’s response 

In a statement to The Art Newspaper, Ludovic De Walden of the London law
firm Lane & Partners which represents Lord Northampton’s trust, said: “So
far as the Trustee [Lord Northampton] is concerned, there is no direct
evidence now or before of there being any pieces forming part of the Sevso
hoard beyond the 14 pieces owned by the Trustee and the bronze cauldron
which contained the 14 pieces. There have been rumours of additional pieces
since Peter Wilson and Peter Mimpriss [of Allen & Overy] first invited Lord
Northampton to participate in the acquisition of the treasure in late 1981.
However, nothing beyond the 14 pieces has ever been produced as definitely
forming part of the Sevso hoard and certainly nothing further has been
purchased by the Trustee.” 

“The only exception are the silver horse roundels which were bought before
Lord Northampton had participated in the acquisition of the treasure but
which Mr Korban subsequently confirmed were unconnected with the Sevso
hoard. Although a silver patten dish was offered and shown by Mr Korban in
March 1988, there was no direct evidence at all to show that it was part of
the Sevso hoard and in any event it was not purchased.” 

“The scheme for all the export licence issues was organised by Allen & Overy
with their client Ramiz Rizk. In March 1987, Peter Mimpriss had advised that
it may be possible and cheaper to obtain a type of ‘block licence’ in
Lebanon to cover not only the export of the four pieces which the Trustee
was acquiring but also the export of any other pieces which might exist and
which the Trustee might buy if they existed and were offered. However,
notwithstanding any undated pro forma invoice [the undated “Guarantee”] from
Hadrian Trading to Guernroy which you have referred to (but not shown me),
Mr Korban confirmed in June 1987 that the Sevso hoard consisted only of the
14 pieces and the cauldron. That remains the Trustee’s belief which is
supported by scientific and scholastic evidence.” 

Disclosure? 

An Early Day Motion on the Sevso treasure has been tabled in Parliament by
the Conservative MP Tim Loughton and signed by 48 MPs. This calls for “the
Trustee of the Marquess of Northampton 1987 Settlement and the government of
the Republic of Hungary to refer all available evidence on the origin,
provenance and recent movement of the silver to an independent expert
evaluation charged with identifying on the balance of probabilities the
country of origin of the silver.” It also calls for the Sevso hoard not to
be sold until this independent assessment has taken place. 

Writing in this newspaper, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, reiterates the call
for an independent investigation and calls for the publication of any
evidence disclosed to it. 


Time for the Sevso evidence to be made public


By Colin Renfrew | Posted 01 March 2007 

   
 Detail of fish and ducks from amphorae in the Sevso hoard 
 
 
The Sevso story gets murkier and murkier. For the archaeologist and, indeed,
for the general public the scandal of clandestine and presumably illegal
excavation is, above all, the loss of information. We learn about the human
past when artefacts like the late Roman silver vessels of the Sevso Treasure
are found from the context of their discovery. We need to know exactly how a
find was made, in what context, and with what other materials. And above all
we need to know where it was found—a workshop, a rich burial, a Roman villa?


This document to Guernroy Ltd reveals the antiquities trade at its most ugly
and shameful. It suggests what many have long suspected: that the 14
splendid silver vessels which are currently in the possession of the
Marquess of Northampton are only a part of a larger hoard, which was split
up by dealers more concerned with gain than historical information following
its discovery. The tragedy of Sevso is not only that the treasure was
removed from its country of origin and the circumstances of its discovery
lost, but that this important find may have been split up. 

The second document, to the aptly-named Mr Risk in the Lebanon, would be
comic if the Sevso story were not such a tragedy to archaeology. The
trustees are revealed as paying $500,000 for “legal export licences” for
those 14 silver vessels, licences which would document that they had been
exported from the Lebanon. But export licences are usually issued prior to
the export taking place! On what evidence would these “legal export
licences” be issued? The public at large are entitled to ask those serving
as trustees then what grounds they had for supposing that the 14 silver
vessels had ever been in the Lebanon. The trail in this murky affair seems
instead to lead back to Vienna. Members of the All-Party Parliamentary
Archaeology Group heard last year in Westminster about the evidence which
Hungarian archaeologists claim establishes the findspot as near Lake Balaton
in Hungary. Hungary’s claim, which was dismissed by a New York court in
1993, raises many unanswered questions about the Sevso silver. 

Is it not time that there was a public inquiry into the Sevso Affair? Lord
Northampton in 1991 received an out-of-court settlement of an undisclosed
sum, believe to be around £25m, from Peter Mimpriss, his former lawyer and
his law firm Allen & Overy, for mishandling his affairs. The writ of summons
alleged “fraud, deceit, negligence and fraudulent misrepresentation” among
other claims. Presumably these troubling documents, now made public for the
first time by The Art Newspaper, were already revealed in the papers
submitted to the court at that time, but all the materials then submitted
remain confidential under the terms of the settlement. The Early Day Motion
set down by Tim Loughton, MP, calls for an expert and independent evaluation
of all the evidence relating to the Sevso Treasure. I would go one step
further and ask for the publication and public evaluation of that evidence.
It is time now for some transparency in an effort to establish the
treasure’s place of discovery. 

Meanwhile, what of the “187 silvergilt spoons, 37 silvergilt drinking cups
and five silver bowls” which the documents say were “guaranteed” by Halim
Korban as “future purchases” by or on behalf of Lord Northampton? Are they
part of the Sevso treasure? Lord Northampton says he did not buy them. So
what did happen to them? These are matters of public concern within the UK
because the 14 vessels which Lord Northampton holds are currently located in
the UK. Indeed they formed the basis for that curious exhibition, held last
year in Bond Street at Bonhams the auctioneers, to which the general public
was not admitted, when they were seen for the first time by archaeologists
in this country. 

The Sevso Treasure is one of the important discoveries of the past 30 years
and deserves to be exhibited in the national museum of its country of
origin. These squalid documents go some way to explaining why that is not
yet the case. 

The writer is Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Fellow of the McDonald
Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University.