[MSN] Ban Chiang smugglers busted. The Fine Arts Department has sought an investigation to establish if stolen artefacts uncovered following a crackdown in the United States belonged to the ancient Ban Chiang period.

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Ban Chiang smugglers busted
The Fine Arts Department has sought an investigation to establish if stolen
artefacts uncovered following a crackdown in the United States belonged to
the ancient Ban Chiang period.

Published on January 28, 2008


US authorities raided four museums in southern California last week,
breaking an illegal network smuggling the items into the US.

The department wants the artefacts returned to the King-dom if they were
found to be from Ban Chiang, the oldest known civilisation in the King-dom,
which dates back to 1,000 BC.

Fine Arts Department director Kriangkrai Sampatchalit wanted clear proof
about the artefacts. "We would ask Unesco's International Council of Museums
to check whether they are genuine objects. If they are real we would provide
historical evidence to prove they belong to Thailand," he said by phone
yesterday.

Dozens of US federal agents descended on the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, Pasa-dena's Pacific Asia Museum, Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and Mingei
International Museum in San Diego.

The raids marked the first public move in a five-year undercover probe of
the alleged smuggling network, The Los Angeles Time reported on Friday.

The detailed warrants gave agents broad authority to search the museums'
galleries, offices, storage areas and computer archives.

They were looking for objects and records related to the primary targets of
the investigation: an alleged art smuggler, Robert Olson, and the owner of a
Los Angeles Asian art gallery, Jonathan Markell.

Markell's Silk Roads Gallery on La Brea Avenue was also raided.

No arrests were made, but legal experts say the surprise search warrants
suggest prosecutors are collecting the final elements to seek criminal
indictments against Markell and Olson, the paper said.

Many objects come from the ancient civilisation of Ban Chiang, which
occupied northeastern Thailand from 1000 BC to 200 AD.

"The original location where the Ban Chiang culture was discovered was named
a World Heritage Site in 1992 and is considered the most important
pre-historic settlement yet discovered in Southeast Asia," the search
warrants said.

The warrants allege that the Ban Chiang objects are probably looted because
they were first excavated by archaeologists in 1967, six years after
Thailand banned the export of antiquities.

The Thai government never gave permission for the contested antiquities to
leave the country.

Moreover, importing such objects into the US after 1979 was a violation of
the US National Stolen Property Act and the Archaeological Resource
Protection Act, the warrants state.

Other objects named in the warrants came from Burma, from which the US has
banned imports since 2003, and China, which has strict export laws governing
its antiquities.

The investigation began in 2003, when the undercover agent with the National
Park Service posed as a buyer and began purchasing allegedly looted art from
Olson, according to the warrants. Olson, the warrants say, specialises in
Native American and Thai antiquities.

Olson allegedly told the agent he had been importing objects from Ban Chiang
since the 1980s and had never received a permit from the Thai government. He
said he got objects "as they were being dug up" and knew it was illegal to
ship them out of the country, the warrants say.

The smuggled antiquities were affixed with "Made in Thailand" labels, and
sometimes painted over to make them look to US customs officials like modern
replicas, Olson allegedly told the agent.

Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong

Los Angeles Times

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