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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2006
Chronicles: January 1, 2004––December 31, 2004.
The new Russian Customs Code came into effect. A paragraph in Article 282 marks the first step in the Russian art market's development and liberalization. Where the government had previously levied a 30% tax on all art imports, the new regulations now allow Russians to import art they have acquired abroad free of all customs duties. Aleekseev, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 31.
The British Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003 (c. 27) entered into force. The new law is designed to reduce the flow of illicit antiquities through London. It outlaws the handling of an item knowing that it was illegally removed from a site anywhere in the world after 2003.
The Supreme Court of the United States of America declined to hear the appeal in the case United States v. Schultz, 333 F.3d 393 (2nd Cir. 2003) and ICJP 2005, p. 132. The lower court convicted the antiquities dealer of New York of conspiracy to sell antiquities taken out of Egypt in violation of that country's cultural property ownership laws. IFAR Journal 6 (4) (2003/04): 5.
The Maharashtra State Government (West India with Bombay as capital) banned the book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India by James Laine, Professor of Religious Studies at Macalester College in Minnesota and published by Oxford University Press. King Shivaji (1627–1680) is revered among Hindus for founding the Maratha Empire, a confederacy of chieftains in western India that resisted Mughal rule. Professor Laine's book provoked anger among certain Hindu nationalist militants by raising questions about Shivaji's family life. The government ban was made under the law which forbids “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riots” and “promoting enmity between different groups.” On January 6, 2004, an Indian mob had destroyed 30,000 ancient manuscripts of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. The Art Newspaper, February 2004, p. 3.
Iran and Italy signed an agreement to cooperate in drawing up a plan aiming to reinforce the National Museum's (Iran Bastan Museum) structure and to implement a renovation scheme. Meanwhile, in another cooperation in cultural affairs between the two nations, a group of Italian archaeologists are due in Iran to study ways of rebuilding the quake-stricken city of Bam and its ancient Citadel. IRNA, January 20 2004.
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) met in Leiden, Netherlands, and presented to the public the Red List of Latin-American Cultural Objects at Risk. 〈http://icom.museum/redlist〉
The New York State Supreme Court ordered the return of an El Greco painting to the lender in Crete and dismissed a Holocaust related claim that tried to keep the painting in the United States at the end of a three-month stay at the Metropolitan Museum. The claim was rejected because the painting had been granted immunity from seizure by the federal government when the exhibition—an El Greco retrospective—was first organized. Ioram Deutsch v. Metropolitan Museum of Art; Heraklion Foundation, Index # 04100902. IFAR Journal 6 (4) (2003/2004): 7.
The Italian president of state approved the Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio (Code of Cultural Objects and the Environment; also called Codice Urbani) by legislative decree no. 41. This code defines the Italian art objects and provides for their protection, conservation, and circulation in Italy and abroad. Included are also the provisions implementing the European Directive of March 15, 1993, on the return of illegally removed art objects and certain articles on the Unidroit Convention of June 24, 1995, ratified by Italy on June 7, 1999. The Code of 2004 does not replace the basic statutes on cultural property. Supplemento ordinario alla Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana n. 45 of February 24, 2004.
The Chief of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Lawrence M. Small, pleaded guilty to a count of possessing and importing 206 Amazonian artifacts made of feathers and other parts of endangered birds, contrary to the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Small's possession of the objects apparently came to light after photographs appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine 2000. The New York Times, January 24, 2004; The Art Newspaper, March 2004.
A judge in Montgomery county (Pennsylvania) declined to approve a proposed relocation for the cash-poor Barnes Foundation, saying that more evidence is needed to deviate from the donor's intention that his art collection be maintained in Lower Merion in suburban Philadelphia. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 14; Beck, ARTnews, February 2004, p. 45. This decision was vacated on December 13, 2004, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 9.
A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by the heirs of the Russian artist Kasimir Malevich (1878–1935) against the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The heirs claim that they, and not the museum, are the legal owners of 14 Malevich paintings, estimated in the suit to be worth upward of $150 million, that were recently loaned by the Stedelijk to two museums in the U.S. IFAR Journal 6 (4) (2003/04): 9; art 2004, p. 121; Schweighöfer, art, 2004, p. 127.
Russia's Supreme Court, the highest instance for most civil cases, refused to hear a lawsuit filed by a group of historians protesting the eviction of the Russian State Historical Archives from a listed building in downtown St. Petersburg. The presidential administration plans to move federal offices into this nineteenth-century building. The court cited Article 134 of the Russian code of civil procedure that allows it to decide which cases are and are not in its jurisdiction. Varoli, The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 5.
The Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, Germany, still refuses to return the Nolde painting “Buchsbaumgarten” (Boxwood Garden) to the heir (Ruth Haller of Israel) of the former owner Ismar Littmann. The museum did not submit to the mediation of the Advisory Committee Concerning the Return of Cultural Property (ICJP 2005, p. 134) and does not recognize any legal or moral right of the heir of the former owner. In 1956 the museum acquired the painting in an auction of the Kunstkabinett Ketterer in Stuttgart. Grieshaber, ARTnews, February 2004, p. 54.
Parthenon 2004 was created in the United Kingdom to join the campaign of the long established British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. This lobby group, Marbles Reunited, is calling at least for a long-term loan of the British Museum's Parthenon sculptures to the New Parthenon Museum in Athens as soon as it is completed. The British Museum issues a statement that the sculptures were legally acquired and that London is the best place for them to be displayed. The Art Newspaper, February 2004, p. 19.
Museum of London director Professor Jack Lohman was calling for the reburial of 17,000 skeletons in its collection. This burial plan came as the government was about to issue a consultation paper on the report of its Working Group on Human Remains. Chaired by Professor Norman Palmer, their study recommended in November 2003 that U.K. museums should adopt a more liberal approach to dealing with requests for the repatriation of human remains. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, February 2004, p. 19.
Opening of the exhibition Making Differences in Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities. The Israeli-born artist Dror Feiler displayed his installation, “Snow White and the Madness of Truth,” which includes a photograph of the Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat on a small boat floating in a pool of blood-colored water. Zvi Mazel, Israel's ambassador to Sweden, criticized the installation and called it “a political call to kill Jewish people.” The installation was not removed. Israel did not attend the international antigenocide conference sponsored by the Swedish government. Beck, ARTnews, March 2004, p. 64.
Discovery of Fernand Léger's painting “The Pilot,” formerly owned by the German-Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim (1878–1937), in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The German historian Ottfried Dascher tries to reconstruct Flechtheim's collection of modern art and to locate Flechtheim's paintings and heirs. Chistmann, art, 2004, p. 109.
U.S. homeland security officials returned a rare fourteenth-century Hebrew manuscript (Sepher Yetzirah), looted by the Nazis in 1938 in Vienna, to the Jewish community of Vienna. The manuscript was smuggled into the United States by the Judaica book dealer Aaron Stefansky, finally seized when he offered it for sale at Kestenbaum and Co., a New York auction house. Henry, ARTnews, February 2004, p. 48.
The painting “Le Salon de Madame Avon” by Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940), which was looted by the Nazis from a French bank vault, has been discovered at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The gallery has agreed to return the painting once it receives confirmation that the claimants are rightful heirs under French law. The Vancouver Sun, January 15, 2004.
The trial for the clandestine export of a golden phial and a Greek plate decorated with a relief, which are among the most valuable items of Sicilian archaeological heritage, ended with two convictions, one acquittal, and one declaration of no grounds to proceed. The sentence was issued by the single judge of the Tribunale at Termini Imerese (Palermo), who condemned Richard Haber, a New York art dealer, and William Veres, a Hungarian antiquarian, to 1 year and 10 months. The sentence was suspended for both of them. The only Italian on trial, the baron and known numismatist from Enna (Sicily), Vincenzo Cammarata was accused of illegal exportation. Finally, acquitted due to a lack of intent, was the American billionaire Michael Steinhardt, who bought the phial in Switzerland in 1991.
Holy relics in Badshahi Mosque (King's Mosque) in Lahore (Pakistan) will not be shifted to Lahore Museum. However, foolproof security arrangement will be made for the safety of 27 holy relics exhibited in the mosque and visited by a large number of Muslims every year. Pakistan Times, January 6, 2004.
The opposition in Victoria, Australia, is calling for an investigation into the loss of Aboriginal human remains from the Melbourne Museum. It is said that the Victorian minister of arts has known for three years that these significant human remains have been missing from the Melbourne Museum and for three years nothing has been said to Victoria's indigenous community about the loss. 〈http://abc.net.au〉
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued its decision in the case Bonnichsen v. United States, otherwise known as the “Kennewick Man” case, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. They upheld the lower court's ruling that Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) did not apply to the 900-year-old skeleton found in Washington state in 1996, because cultural affiliation with a living Native American group could not be established on oral history alone, 367 Federal Reporter 3d 864. See also Sarah Harding, Larry J. Zimmermann, and Dorothy Lippert, IJCP 12 (2005): 249ff.
Conference “Not for Sale” in Geneva organized by the British Embassy in Switzerland, the British Council Switzerland, and the Art Law Centre Geneva. Switzerland and the United Kingdom ratified the UNESCO Convention of 1970 and pledged to fight the trade of looted cultural property and any other kind of illegal art trade. NIKE 2004, (2–3): 46.
Annette Leduc Beaulieu and Brooks Beaulieu filed a suit against the National Gallery of Art (Washington) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charging the museum with violating the Lanham Act. The plaintiffs are specialists of the French painter Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940) and have prepared an unpublished manuscript “Reconsidering Vuillard” written between 1992 and 1996. They accuse the defendant of plagiarizing this work and contend that their scholarly reputation has been irreparably damaged. Flescher/Friedman, IFAR Jounal 7 (1) (2004): 13–15.
The Getty Museum withdrew its export licence application for the export of Raphael's “Madonna of the Pinks,” formerly owned by the Duke of Northumberland and finally bought by the National Gallery for £22 million. The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 18; March 2005, p. 23.
The Berlin-based Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten (SPSG) and the Dutch art dealer Willem Jan Hoogsteder in The Hague agreed that the painting “Lady Feeding a Parrot” by Willem van Mieris (1662–1747), stolen in 1945 by a soldier, should be returned to Potsdam. The dealer will be compensated for his expenses. Schweighoefer, art, 2004 (3): 113.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Vienna has called for an inquiry into the contents of the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland, after linking the former owners of the collection, the antique dealer John Hunt (1900–1976) and his wife Gertrude Hunt (1903–1995), to “notorious dealers in art looted by the Nazis.” The Irish Times, February 9, 2004.
Egyptian authorities captured a smuggling ring that unearthed and illegally sold ancient artifacts. The artifacts include a statue of the falcon-headed god Horus, kitchen tools, royal Pharaonic seals, and jars containing mummified scorpions and snakes. Despite a 1983 law prohibiting trade in Egyptian antiquities other than pieces already in private collections, Egypt still has a persisting problem with smugglers. Press release of Associated Press.
The 7th Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992 was held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and discussed the access to biological resources and sharing the benefits such as the intellectual property rights of indigenous people. New Straits Times (Malaysia), January 14, 2004, p. 12.
In a handsome panelled room in the shadow of Napoleon's tomb in Paris, something happened that will send a shiver down the spine of many museum directors: A major British museum sent something back to the Musée de l'Armée next to the Panthéon. The object concerned was a pair of tasset-thigh covers from a suit of sixteenth-century armor that probably was looted in Paris after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and left France in a soldier's kit bag. The Royal Armouries and the Musée de l'Armée both described the return as “a long-term loan,” which set new precedents for other collections. Provenance research may also discover ancient irregularities. The Guardian, February 12, 2004.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, has rented out 21 Impressionist paintings from its incomparable collection of 36 of Claude Monet to the proprietor of a store at the upscale Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This has been heavily criticized in many papers, Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2004.
Israeli antiquities police nabbed three Palestinian grave robbers red-handed as they dug through an underground warren of tunnels searching for artifacts in the site Hirbet Zahar Llin east of Roglit in the Elah Valley. The Israeli Antiquities Authority's Unit for the Prevention of Theft of Antiquities had set up an ambush trying to get the grave robbers from the village Zurif in the West Bank. 〈http://www.jpost.com〉
While the building of the New York Museum of Modern Art was renovated, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) loaned its masterpieces to be exhibited in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. This exhibition lasted until September 19, 2004, and became a big success with 1.2 million visitors. Le Journal des Arts 211 (March 18–31, 2005): 7.
Thieves broke into the Philippines' oldest Catholic church, San Agustin, in Manila and stripped a 300-year-old icon of its gold and silver parts. Reuters, February 21, 2004.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Maria V. Altmann v. Republic of Austria in her claim for the return of six paintings by Gustav Klimt. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 7.
Debate in the House of Commons whether the British Library should be allowed to return the Lindisfarne Gospels (ca. 715 ad) to Northumbria. The gospels were acquired in the early seventeenth century by Sir Robert Cotton from Robert Bowyer, Clerk of the Parliaments. Cotton's library came to the British Museum in the eighteenth century, and from there to the British Library in London. The Guardian, February 25, 2004.
Five ivories worth $1.2 million on loan from Lord Thomson were stolen from the Art Gallery of Ontario and then recovered two weeks later. Mason, The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 17.
There are complaints that the British Iraq (United Nations Sanctions) Order 2003 of June 14, 2003, (ICJP 2005, p. 131) does not work well. Sykes, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, pp. 23–24.
Discussion in Swedish newspapers about four paintings of Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) given by the Russian art historian Nikolai Khardzhiev ([dagger] 1996) to the Swedish scholar Bengt Jangfeldt; Khardzhiev's heirs requested that they be returned. Koldehoff, ARTnews, March 2005, p. 54.
Russia's Minister of Culture, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said that a collection of drawings taken from Germany by Viktor Baldin at the end of World War II will now be returned to a museum in Bremen, Germany, despite an order from Russia's general prosecutor forbidding the move. Varoli, The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 7. As of July 2005 the drawings had not been returned.
A regional conference in Egypt, organized also by Shaheen Abou-Alfoutouh has called Western countries to return “stolen” Middle Eastern artifacts to their countries of origin. The conference referred to items such as the stone of Rosetta in London and the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin. BBCNews, February 24, 2004.
Nickolas Greer, age 62 years, was sentenced for stealing archaeological artifacts on the Navajo Reservation. He was sentenced to three-months of probation and to pay the Navajo Nation $8592 in restitution. 〈http://www.thenavajotimes.com〉
Jordanian customs officials confiscated a number of Iraqi artifacts, including statues and hundreds of ancient coins that were hidden in a vehicle crossing into Jordan from Syria. 〈http://www.brunei-online.com〉
Fire has destroyed much of one of the most important monasteries on Mount Athos, the all-male monastic community on the Halkidiki peninsula in northeast Greece. It is the Serbian monastery of Chilandar founded in 1197 and occupied by 25 monks. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 8.
The Second Protocol of 1999 to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict came into force, three months after the ratification by Costa Rica as the 20th State Party.
The Spanish Council of Ministers passed the royal decree under the new statute of November 2003 giving more power to the trustees of the Prado. Suffied, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 12.
In Tegucigalpa the United States and Honduras signed the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from the Pre-Columbian Cultures of Honduras. This is another bilateral agreement to implement the 1970 UNESCO Convention in the United States. Press release of the U.S. Department of State of March 16, 2004.
Algeria approved as the first state the UNESCO Convention of October 17, 2003, for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. As of the end of October 2005, 26 States have approved, accepted, or ratified the convention. It will enter into force when 30 states have accepted, approved, or ratified the instrument. 〈http://www.unesco.org〉.
Dr. Omotoso Eluyemi, the director-general of Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments, told the press that Switzerland and South Africa returned to Nigeria 62 stolen cultural objects. Switzerland repatriated 46, and 16 were received from South Africa. The safety of Nigeria's museums has been improved to prevent thefts that happened in the past frequently. This Day (Lagos), March 16, 2004.
The Ukraine passed the Protection of Archaeological Heritage Act 2004. The aim of the act is to regulate social relations in the area of protection, research, and preserving the heritage that is to permit archaeologists to carry out their work and create the necessary conditions to safeguard archaeological sites. European Current Law 107 (June 2004): 128.
After a 15-month-long investigation the police in Naples, Italy, recovered 750 stolen archaeological finds and charged 17 people with receiving stolen property. 〈http://www.agi.it〉
Greece's plans to build a new Acropolis Museum that might eventually host the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles suffered a major legal blow. Athens' prosecutor Dimitris Asproyerakas pressed charges of breach of duty against almost every official involved in the €94-million project. The charges were linked with the alleged destruction of antiquities to allow preliminary construction work. 〈http://www.ekathimerini.com〉
“Asia Week” in Manhattan. The expanding Chinese economy resulted in a greatly increased number of Chinese dealers, from mainland China, Hong Kong, and a few from Taiwan travelling to “Asia Week.” An increasing number of wealthy Chinese in the mainland has made a huge impact on the Asian art market. Page, The Art Newspaper, May 2004, p. 49.
A well-known English Egyptologist, when recently asked by an admirer whether he still excavated, replied “not any longer—only museum basements.” This was revealed in an American newspaper underlining the great problem confronting so many academic institutions and museums that have conducted excavations throughout the past century and more, and stressing the dilemma of properly cataloguing, publishing, displaying, and perhaps disseminating part of the millions of objects stored away in their basements and warehouses. Eisenberg, Minerva, 16 (July/August 2004): 2.
Thirty-second annual conference in Manhattan on “Legal problems in museum administration” presented by the American Law Institute–American Bar Association and co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution with the cooperation of the American Association of Museums. This conference emphasized the legal accountability of museums, including the role of state attorneys general, that lay down rules on endowment spending. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, May 2004, p. 16.
A sixteenth-century woodcarving depicting San Francisco receiving stigmas, stolen from Mexico three years ago has been found at the Santa Fe Payton Wright Gallery. 〈http://www.kobtv.com〉
Cyprus filed a suit in a German court to retrieve antiquities stolen after the Turkish invasion, hidden by Aydin Dikmen, and retrieved by the Bavarian authorities, which have withheld them since. 〈http://www.cyprus-mail.com〉
Russia is set to return to Belgium the seventeenth-century painting “The Landscape with a Burning Church” by David Ryckaert (1612–1661) which was stolen from Antwerp in 1999. 〈http://newsfromrussia.com〉
The Swiss collector Jean-Pierre Lehmann started a lawsuit against the New York Gallery “The Project” for violation of a contract giving Lehmann a right of preemption in art objects made by the American artist of Ethiopian origin Julie Mehretu. Lufkin, Le Journal des Arts 210 (March 4–17, 2004): 26.
The new Russian Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov dismissed German claims for return of art objects taken by Russia after World War II. Varoli, The Art Newspaper, May 2004, p. 3.
The heirs of the Jewish collector Bernhard Altmann of Vienna recovered the Lenbach painting “Portrait of Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn,” which was confiscated in 1938, held by the Federal Republic of Germany in the collection of unprovenanced art objects, and eventually attributed to the Altmann collection. Art, April 2004, p. 126.
A private member's bill for introducing the droit de suite in Australia by the Resale Royalty Bill was introduced in parliament for an amendment of the Copyright Act 1968. Dudley, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 27.
The Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam acquired the painting “Burgomaster of Delft and His Daughter” by Jan Steen (1625/26–1679). The painting was sold for €11.9 million from the heirs of Lady Janet Pennant, of Penrhyn Castle in Wales. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 10.
French officials met with their Israeli counterparts in an effort to negotiate a solution for the French loan of Nazi-looted art remaining with the French State as the Musées Nationaux Récupération. The works will go on display in Israel provided Israel first passes a law barring ownership claims on the works. Harris, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 7.
The conservation chiefs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used the World Heritage Day to highlight the rich traditions of the country and to declare their determination to preserve its architectural wealth. Bassam Al Jandaly (Dubai), March 15, 2004; 〈http://www.gulf-news.com〉
During investigations preceding road construction works in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, an impressive bronze hoard was discovered by a team of archaeologists from Leiden University. Halbertsma, Minerva 15 (July/August 2004): 5.
The Axum obelisk, which has stood at the top of the Circus Maximus in Rome since Mussolini's troops looted it from the holy city of Axum in Ethiopia in 1937, was dismantled into blocks and was stored in a hangar at Fiumicino Airport to be returned to Ethiopia. The Art Newspaper, March 2004, p. 6.
Twenty-three Iraqi museum professionals on a U.S. government–sponsored tour of American institutions came face to face with a head missing from a statue in the collection of the National Museum in Baghdad. The face was stored in the University of Pennsylvania Museum and acquired in the late 1920s from a New York dealer. This, however, was known to the Baghdad Museum, which got a cast of the head in 1935. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 1
Four art experts sent to Kosovo by UNESCO have reported that major Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were vandalized or destroyed during an eruption of ethnic violence in the province. Akinsha, ARTnews, Summer 2005, p. 96.
The Greek government announced that the construction of the New Acropolis Museum, designed by New York architect Bernard Tschumi, has been halted because of damage it would inflict on archaeological remains on the site where it was due to be built. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 9.
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), as the world's most powerful conservation bodies, have joined forces to help Iraq restore its cultural heritage and will collaborate with Iraq's Ministry of Culture and State Board of Antiquities and heritage to repair the damage sustained as a result of the 2003 war. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 5.
At the Art Fair in Maastricht it was revealed that Russian dealers try to sell art objects (still lives by Willem van Aelst and Rachel Ruysch) looted in Vienna in 1945 and owned by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Bailey and Kishkovsky, The Art Newspaper, May 2004, p. 1.
David Lee, the director of Salt Lake City's Utah Museum of Fine Arts, returned the painting “Les Jeunes Amoureux” by François Boucher (1703–1770) to Claude Delibes, daughter of the former owner and art dealer André Jean Seligmann, and his daughter-in-law Suzanne Geiss Robbins. The painting was looted by the Nazis in Paris and donated to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in 1993. Associated Press, April 4, 2004.
Auction of indigenous artifacts and Khmer sculptures in Alexandria Town Hall (Sydney, Australia). Two Aboriginal items and carved skulls from Borneo, likely acquired illegally, were withdrawn after art experts had alarmed the police and the auctioneer of all these objects. 〈http://www.smh.com.au〉
The Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig in Basel, Switzerland opened the exhibition “Tutankhamun—The Golden Beyond.” Displayed were 120 original works from the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, most from royal and private tombs from the period of the eighteenth Dynasty (fifteenth to fourteenth centuries bc) in the Valley of the Kings. Wiese, Minerva 15 (3) (May/June 2004): 9–13. The exhibition, which lasted until September 30, 2004, became a big success with 605,000 visitors. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, October 2–3, 2004, p. 43.
The tribunal administratif of Paris had to decide on a piece of the Colonne Vendôme, erected by Napoleon as a monument of glory of the French army and destroyed in 1871. The piece, lost since 1875, was recently discovered. The tribunal declined to give an export licence because the piece never ceased to be public property (domaine public). Schmitt, Le Journal des Arts, 205 (December 17, 2004–January 6, 2005): 26.
The Turkish industrialist, art collector, benefactor, and art sponsor Sakip Sabanci (1933–2004) passed away in Turkey. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, April 14, 2004, p. 43.
The Ahmedabad (India) crime branch recovered a thirteenth-century idol of a Jain goddess from a gang of antique smugglers. 〈http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com〉
Grave robbers in Peru irreversibly destroyed a 1000-year-old mural at an ancient Peruvian ceremonial site 425 miles northeast of Lima. The remote site was unguarded due to lack of funds. 〈http://www.newsday.com〉
The Italian parliament passed the Legge n. 106 on “Norme relative al deposito legale dei documenti di interesse culturale destinati all'uso pubblico” (provisions on the mandatory deposit of documents of cultural interest for public use). This statute obliges publishing houses, typographs, and producers of documents (as defined by Article 4: books, graphic art, movies, etc.) to deposit copies at certain libraries. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana 98 (April 27, 2004): 6.
Christie's of London withdrew a fragment of Persepolis from an auction when a London court decided that the Iranian government should be given the opportunity to show that the fragment illegally left Iran in the 1930s and that it should be returned to the Iran. Le Journal des Art 214 (April 29–May 12, 2004): 21.
Sotheby's of New York sold the Forbes' Fabergé collection for approximately $100 million to the foundation “Link of London” of the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. The collection is temporarily exhibited in Russia but is not Russian and can be exported or exhibited abroad without government permission. The Art Newspaper, February 2004, p. 37; The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 3.
The Sheikh Saud al Thani of Qatar bought four Clive of India treasures including the £3 million Clive of India flask for his planned Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and applied for an export licence. These treasures had once been owned by Robert Clive (1725–1774), who served as general for the East India Company. The Victoria and Albert Museums (V&A) tried to acquire the flask but failed to raise the necessary funds before Sheikh Saud withdrew the application for an export licence in December 2004. Now he may hold the treasures in one of his private residences in the United Kingdom. Mark Jones, the director of the V&A, feels that there should be a reform of the present export rules, to allow buyers to lend objects to U.K. museums for agreed periods on a perpetual basis, in return for an export licence. In this case the flask could be shown for one year in the V&A and the next year at the Doha Museum. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 22; and The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 14.
Phoenix Ancient Art (New York), one of the world's leading antiquities galleries, has agreed to return two limestone monuments smuggled out of Egypt in the mid-1990s. The New York Times, April 3, 2004.
Dürer exhibition in the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, exhibiting the discovered wing of “John the Baptist,” part of an altarpiece looted from Germany in 1945 and owned by the Kunsthalle Bremen. The wing was returned by Estonia to Germany and in the exhibition the other wing of the altarpiece still in Bremen was shown. Akinsha, ARTnews, February 2004, p. 52.
One year after the looting of Baghdad's National Museum on April 12–14, 2003, there are around 8000 objects missing. Approximately 14,000 objects were looted, of which 4000 were later returned or recovered in Iraq. A further 2000 pieces have been seized abroad, in America, France, Italy, and Jordan, and these will eventually be returned. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 5. All museums are closed and looting of archaeological sites continues. Kaufman and Bailey, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 4.
An Egyptian court sentenced Tariq Suissi, the ringleader of a ring responsible for smuggling hundreds of ancient artifacts out of Egypt, to 35 years in prison. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 11.
A lawsuit has been filed in Arizona about a group of bronze sculptures by Auguste Renoir (1841–1919). The lawsuit was filed by Paul Renoir, grandson of Auguste Renoir, after an art gallery offered works allegedly taken from stolen or wrongfully owned plasters. It also raises the issue of the enforceability of a French judgment in the U.S. Adam, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 48.
Restitution of art objects to the heirs of the Jewish banker Max Steinthal (1850–1940) of Berlin after they have been discovered in the depot of the Picture Gallery of Schloss Pillnitz, close to Dresden. These treasures were later sold by Sotheby's London. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, October 30–31, 2004, p. 37.
In Kiev's Mariinsky Palace, the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma returned to the Netherlands, represented by the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, 139 drawings of the Koenigs Collection looted by the Nazis, in 1947 stolen by Russian soldiers, and finally discovered in their original black boxes with red seals in the Khanansky Museum in Kiev. The drawings will be exhibited in Kiev before they will be displayed in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam in July 2004. 〈http://news.bbc.co.uk〉
California appeals court held that state courts could not hear the lawsuit brought by a California resident against a Chicago collector concerning the Picasso painting “Woman in White” loaned to a Los Angeles art dealer for an exhibition. Thomas Bennigson of California says that the painting was looted in France in 1940 from his grandmother Carlota Landsberg and later sold in New York to the Chicago collector Marilynn Alsdorf. The California Supreme Court considers the power to hear the case. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 4. In September 2004 Alsdorf started proceedings in Chicago asking to confirm the legality of her possession of the Picasso painting. Lufkin, Le Journal des Arts 206 (January 7–20, 2005): 8. On October 22, 2004, the confiscation suit commenced in the Los Angeles federal trial court by U.S. Attorney Debra W. Yang, who alleges that Ms. Alsdorf violated the National Stolen Property Act. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 7; Ferrara, ARTnews, February 2005, p. 58.
The new Italian Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio entered into force: Article 183 (7) of the Code (Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Supplemento ordinario, n. 45 of February 24, 2004). Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2004, p. 48.
The British Export of Objects of Cultural Interest (Control) Order 2003 (Statutory Instruments 2003, 2759) entered into force. This order replaces the remaining provisions of the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1992 that have been revoked by the Export Control Act 1992. European Current Law, June 2004, p. 78 (no. 240).
U.S. officials returned to Peru 41 pre-Columbian artifacts, including a 1000-year-old mother-of-pearl knife, an elaborately decorated burial shroud, and a gold nose ornament more than 1700 years old. The objects are worth more than $1 million. They were discovered and seized in Arlington when a man tried to sell the objects on the black market. Washington Post, May 3, 2004.
Vandals have damaged Peru's famous 12-cornered Inca stone in the Andean tourist city of Cusco by scarring it with a sharp metal object. The stone cannot be repaired. The attack is not the first time Peru's fragile heritage has come under strain. Vandals have damaged some of Peru's mysterious Nasca lines and a stone sun clock in Machu Picchu. 〈http://news.yahoo.com〉
Constantin Brancusi's “Oiseau dans l'espace” was sold by Christie's of New York for $27.4 million. Le Journal des Arts 216 (May 27–June 9, 2004): 1, 30.
The Cour d'appel de Paris confirmed a lower court judgment on the validity of a sale of a Picasso gouache sold for 2.3 million francs to the Swiss art dealer Beyeler who was not allowed to export this art object out of France. Almost 10 years later, the French government lifted the export ban and Beyeler could sell the gouache for $8.5 million to a New York collector. The original owner wanted to annul the original sale to Beyeler because of the mistaken belief that the art object can never leave France. The courts rejected this argument and confirmed the initial sale to Beyeler. Schmitt, Le Journal des Arts 212 (April 1–14, 2005): 26.
The New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) sold at Christie's nine works of art from the permanent collection, including works of Giorgio de Chirico, Marc Chagall, Renè Magritte, Fernand Lèger, Pablo Picasso, André Masson, Jackson Pollock, and Jean Dubuffet. The museum wanted to raise funds for new acquisitions to be displayed when it moves back into its expanded midtown building in 2005. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 18.
Pablo Picasso's “Garcon à la pipe” from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney sold at Sotheby's for $104 million. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2004, p.53; Le Journal des Arts 200 (October 8–21, 2004): 26.
Screen prints by Gerhard Richter sold for 50 German marks in 1988 sold for $22,000 at an auction of Sotheby's in New York. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 18, 2004, p. 47.
Viking swords, knives, and horse harnesses dating to the year 800 ad were discovered for sale on a web site run by the Michigan auction house Faganarms at Clinton Township. These objects were excavated in Gotland and illegally exported from Sweden. Sweden will ask to have them returned. Associated Press, May 15, 2004.
The Canadian Old Massett Repatriation Committee organized a successful conference in Old Massett, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada). The conference focused on the dynamics surrounding the return of indigenous cultural heritage in Canada and elsewhere. Robert K. Paterson, Media and Arts Law Review 9 (2004): 251–253.
The newly appointed director of the Lahore Museum (Pakistan) told the press that the museum will set up a Sikh Gallery to attract Indian tourists. The Museum already has galleries dedicated to Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam, but it lacked a Sikh gallery. 〈http://www.dailytimes.com.pk〉
“Conference on Archives of Contemporary Art” held in the Accademia di San Luca of Rome discussed whether the archives holding the written estate of artists have a monopoly of information about the artist and his work. Fabrizio Lemme, attorney specializing in art law (“L'Avvocato dell'Arte”) and art collector, pointed out that there is no monopoly of this kind in Italy. Everybody may have an opinion, articulate it, and give information to everybody. Lemme, Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2004, p. 27.
Disastrous fire in the East London warehouse of the art storing and shipping company Momart. More than 50 artists, galleries, and collectors are suing the Momart for the amount of around £20 million because of loss of their stored art treasures. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2005, p. 10.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor filed a complaint in a Los Angeles district court seeking the court's declaration that she is the rightful owner of the van Gogh painting “View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint Rémy.” The painting once belonged to Margarete Mauthner, a German Jew who fled Berlin for South Africa in 1939. Mauthner's Canadian and South African heirs now claim ownership. Flescher/Batters, IFAR Journal 7 (1) (2004): 6–7; Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 7.
Press conference in Moscow where clients of a failed Russian bank announced their lawsuit against the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. They ask that his newly acquired Fabergé imperial eggs be confiscated by the authorities and auctioned to recoup the money they allegedly lost through their business with the failed bank indirectly governed by Vekselberg. They say: “Don't be tight-fisted, Vekselberg, share your eggs with us.” Kishkovsky, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 6.
Russians came en masse to view, bid, and observe at the auction of Sotheby's in London. A new wealthy class in Russia is spending hard and fast. Adam, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 43.
Switzerland returned to Georgia the Okoni Triptych, a unique icon that was stolen approximately 14 years ago in South Ossetia and exported. Switzerland helped to return the icon, which will be restored in the Tbiblisi State Art Museum. 〈http://www.newsfromrussia.com〉
Indian archaeologists have submitted proposals to the Cambodian authorities to restore the twelfth-century Ta Prohm temple, part of the Angkor Wat complex.
The High Court in London handed down the decision in the case Thomson v. Christie's concerning the Houghton urns Ms. Thomson bought for £1.97 million in 1994 said to be eighteenth-century Louis XV. This attribution was later questioned and Ms. Thomson brought suit against Christie's. The court decided that even though the auction house believed the urns were Louis XV and exhaustive tests during the trial could not prove otherwise, Christie's owed a duty to Thomson as a “special client” to disclose the difficulties in distinguishing eighteenth-century Louis XV works from nineteenth-century Second Empire revival works, a difference with significant marketplace implications. Flescher/Batters, IFAR Journal 7 (1) (2004): 8–10; Adam, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 47. Christie's has been given permission to appeal against this judgment. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 50. Also see Vyas in International Journal of Cultural Property 12 (3) (2005): 425–441.
The first meeting of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of Iraq, established under the joint auspices of the Iraqi authorities and UNESCO, was held in Paris. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 12.
The Fabergé eggs repatriated by the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg are exhibited in Russia and start a national tour at the Kremlin Museum in Moscow. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 1
Russian General Prosecutor's Office lifted an official arrest on Rubens' “Tarquinius and Lucretia” (ARTnews, November 2003, p. 70; ICJP 2005, p. 145) looted by a soldier in Germany in 1945 and bought by the Russian art collector Vladimir Logvinenko, will stay in Russia. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 6.
The Russian Deputy Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi publicly criticized the new theory of Scott-Clark/Levy in their book The Amber Room that the Russian army destroyed the Amber Room of Catherine the Great's Tsarskoye Selo palace outside St. Petersburg. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 6.
The University of Chicago returned to Iran a set of 300 ancient clay tablets excavated by researchers of the Oriental Institute in 1933 at Persepolis. This is the first U.S.-led repatriation of archaeological objects to the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 1.
The Utah U.S. Attorney's Office and federal prosecutors in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico joined together to announce a 90-day amnesty programme, to run until August, during which people could return Native American artifacts in their possession without fear of official recrimination. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 15.
The Spanish police discovered a secret museum of about 5000 archaeological objects hidden in the basement of a vine cellar. The museum was known to and visited by tourists. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2004, p. 4.
The Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities returned a 2000-year-old fragment of a lead sarcophagus to the Syrian National Museum. Some years ago the fragment came into the possession of a Newcastle family who recently decided to donate it to the Museum of Antiquities. Museum experts traced the fragment back to the island city of Aradus on the Ile d'Arwad off the coast of Syria. This was confirmed by the Syrian Embassy in London, which had been contacted. 〈http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh/ART221122.html〉
Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE), the volunteer group of professionals and scholars dedicated to increasing public awareness of the looting of cultural antiquities worldwide and the illicit antiquities trade, launched its new web site 〈http://www.savingantiquities.org〉
The court in Santa Elena (capital of the Peten region in Guatemala) convicted three antiquities smugglers of robbing national treasures. These smugglers were members of the same family and stole an eighth-century Mayan altar from an archaeological site and then threatened to kill anyone who told the authorities. The trial was Guatemala's first criminal prosecution of antiquities thieves and the first of its kind in Latin America. D'Arcy, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 32.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in the case Altmann v. Republic of Austria that Austria may be sued in American courts. Supreme Court Reports 124 (2240); Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 7; The American Journal of International Law 99 (236) (2005).
The Centre of the Armenian Heritage (Centre du patrimoine arménien) opened in Valence (France). Le Journal des Arts, May 2004, p. 4
A priceless 1500 year-old Byzantine-era artifact was stolen from an archaeological park near Herzilya, Israel. The thieves took a part of the floor of a glass kiln, one of only three still in existence in Israel. Associated Press, June 12, 2004.
The Association of Holocaust Victims for Restitution of Artwork and Masterpieces (AHVRAM), represented by attorney Edward D. Fagan, filed a lawsuit for billions of dollars against Sotheby's in New York alleging that Sotheby's developed a policy through which it maintained storage facilities and helped secure export licenses for Nazi-looted art on sales, arranged so-called experts to create documents to be used “to establish new provenances,” published materials that carelessly misrepresented the origins of Nazi-looted art, and otherwise trafficked in or profited from Nazi-looted art. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 41. The plaintiff did not appear in court on August 19, 2004, for the hearing on Sotheby's request. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 41.
Christie's of Paris sold a rectangular Benin bronze for €503,270. This bronze had been taken by a British soldier, Edgar R. Dimsey, during the Punitive Expedition of 1897 that captured, burned, and looted the city of Benin. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 44.
United States Customs officials returned 26 pieces of pre-Columbian pottery and stone carvings to the Guatemalan government. The objects, buried for up to 2000 years, were looted from a region that was once the centre of Mayan civilization and wound up in the hands of New York couple Patrick McSween and Judith Ganeles. Report by Noaki Schwartz, Miami: CultPropProtNet/MusSecNetwork of June 18, 2004.
The fair “Art Basel” opened. At Ubu Gallery the Swiss police confiscated three watercolors by the Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer (1888–1943), after the artist's grandson Raman expressed doubts about their authenticity. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 41.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized hundreds of artifacts illegally exported from the Dominican Republic. Associated Press, July 20, 2004.
The Australian Aboriginal group Dja Dja Wurring obtained an emergency declaration under federal Aboriginal heritage laws that has temporarily blocked the return of three bark etchings by Aborigines loaned by two British museums for an exhibition in Melbourne. Professor Jack Lohman, the director of the Museum of London, supported these legal moves but regretted later that he had not written his letter in his personal capacity. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, pp. 16, 28. The legal dispute over the Aboriginal objects went to court in Australia in December 2004. The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 19.
Some buildings of the 720-year-old Huguo Temple in Beijing were destroyed in a fire.
In Dresden, Germany, the cap of the cupola of the reconstructed “Frauenkirche” (Church of Our Lady) with the golden cross donated by the British Dresden Trust was installed. Hamburger Abendblatt, December 31, 2004, p. 4.
At the Sotheby's auction in London the Getty Museum bought the Macclesfield Psalter (1300–1350) discovered in 2003, for $3.1 million. The U.K. export licence has been deferred to enable the Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum to raise funds for acquiring the Psalter. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 14; Segre Amar, Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2004, p. 85.
Christie's of New York sold Audubon's “The Birds of America” for $5.7 million. This was an expensive mistake for the seller, the Saxe-Meiningen family, having some time earlier turned down a $9 million offer from a Manhattan dealer. Mason, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 41.
The Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, chief of the Shiite Ismailian Community, engaged himself to contribute €40 million to the restoration of the castle of Chantilly, owned by the Institut de France. Flouquet, Le Journal des Arts (211) (March 18–31, 2005): 5.
Spanish police recovered more than 200 ancient Mayan and Aztec works of art stolen from Nicaragua. The objects were found in the possession of two aid agency doctors in Madrid and Valencia.
Thirty Thracian treasures have been stolen from a museum in the Bulgarian town of Lovech. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 18.
Tiffany & Co. filed a lawsuit against eBay for selling Tiffany fakes on their site. The same happened to the artist Anna Conti and many manufacturers of well-heeled brands like Gucci and Prada. They all complain that fakes are sold on eBay, and efforts to stop this fraud were in vain. MSNBC, September 21, 2004.
Local authorities of Kabul found about 20,400 pieces of an ancient Afghan treasure known as the “Bactrian Gold” preserved in an underground vault at the presidential palace in Kabul. The treasure was found in 1979, temporarily housed in the Kabul Museum, and later disappeared. Bactria was an ancient Greek kingdom in central Asia that included northern Afghanistan. It existed from the middle of the third century bc to the middle of the second century bc. 〈http://www. paktribune.com〉
The wonderworking Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God was given back to the Russian Orthodox Church in a gesture of goodwill of the American Orthodox Church. The icon of a town in the region of St. Petersburg had been taken to Latvia and smuggled by the Latvian bishop to the United States in 1949. The icon is one of the most revered icons in Russia. Report of David Briggs, June 17, 2004: CultPropProtNet/MusSecNetwork of June 18, 2004.
The Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History in Diana Beach, Florida, is in federal bankruptcy proceedings. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 13.
An official from the Sicilian branch of the Italian Ministry of Culture said, “We are severing all ties with foreign museums that continue to display or hold artifacts that have been illicitly excavated and smuggled out of Sicily. We will no longer loan works from our museums to such institutions.” Ruiz, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 1.
The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington installed in the circle of the atrium a reddish pipestone shaped and polished by a Minnesota Indian. Many other Indians complained that the arrangement is disrespectful of the spiritual nature of a substance that has been used for years to build sacred pipes. Pat Doyle, Minnesota Star Tribune, August 6, 2004.
Gerhard Richter gave 41 of his paintings and works to Dresden's Albertinum Gallery as a loan for 20 years. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 1.
The French Commission de récolement des dépôts d'oeuvres d'art de l'Etat (CRDOA) (Commission on the inspection of state depositories of art objects) established in 1997 returned a Zampieri painting to the Louvre. The painting left the Louvre in 1895, was transferred to the museum in Tours where it was stolen, and finally discovered in the dining room of a local notable. This discovery adds the long list of discoveries made since 1997. Flouquet, Le Journal des Arts 208 (February 4–17, 2005): 5; Beatty, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 21, on the 12,500 missing art objects in France.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts returned a sixteenth-century French portrait to the heir of the Austrian collector Julius Priester. The painting was stolen by the Gestapo in 1944. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 12.
A $15 million lawsuit is filed in Mexico against the Costco-Commercial Mexicana, one of the country's largest supermarket chains, for having destroyed murals in a casino demolished for the construction of the museum of the Gelman Collection in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City. Mistry, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 18.
Egypt is about to begin the painstaking task of cataloguing and restoring about 90,000 Pharaonic artifacts and other items that have lain almost forgotten for decades after being excavated from ruins. 〈http://www.latimes.com〉
A new company called Mutual Art had launched the Artist Pension Fund (APF), the first pension program for visual artists. The scheme offers emerging and midcareer artists a chance to place their works in a collective as an investment. The work will be held for up to two decades, then sold; a percentage of the proceeds will be paid into the retirement accounts of participating artists. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 44.
Italian parliamentarians moved to change the Codice Urbani (Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Supplemento ordinario, n. 45 of February 24, 2004) and to stop the amnesty of private collectors of antiquities who may register their treasures, pay a fine and get legal title to these objects. De Marchi, Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 1. This opposition was eventually successful. The government withdrew the bill providing for the amnesty. The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 24.
A medical treatise written by the physician Mohammed bin Zakarai al-Razi in 1012, stolen from the Awqaf Library in Mosul in 1995 and valued at £250,000, was seized by officers of the art and antiques unit of the Metropolitan Police of London. It will be returned to the library once officers are satisfied that this can be accomplished safely. Guardian, July 7, 2004, p. 9.
The UNESCO Heritage Committee convened in China (Suzhou) and put the Cathedral in Cologne on the list of endangered monuments. Le Journal des Arts 198 (September 10–23, 2004): 4.
The recently discovered painting “Young Woman Seated at the Virginals” of Jan Vermeer (1632–1675) sold at the auction of Sotheby's of London for €24.3 million. Thorncroft, Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2004, p. 85; The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 47.
At Al-Mazyouta Customs Exist Point, security authorities in the Sultanate Oman seized a large truck loaded with antiques consisting of parts of historic pillars and antiques belonging and dating back to Sheba civilization era. The objects were about to be smuggled to foreign countries. 〈http://yementimes.com〉
Opening of the exhibition of 139 drawings of German master from the Koenigs Collection in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. These drawings were unlawfully obtained by the Nazis during World War II, discovered later in the Ukraine, and eventually returned to the Netherlands by Ukrainian authorities (April 2004). Compare Elen (ed.), German Master Drawings from the Koenigs Collection. Return of a Lost Treasure, Rotterdam 2004; Bailey, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 4; Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2004, p. 8.
Belgium passed its first statute on private international law (in force since October 1, 2004). There are two important provisions on cultural property and stolen objects. Article 90, on the law governing cultural objects, reads, “(1) If an object is part of the cultural patrimony of a State and has left that State unlawfully according to the law of that State at the time of export, the recovery claim of that State is governed by the law of that State in force at this moment or, if chosen by that State, by the law of the State in which the object is located at the time of recovery. (2) Whenever the law of the State which qualifies the object as being part of its cultural patrimony, does not provide for the protection of the good faith holder, this person may apply for the protection under the law of the State in which the object is located at the time of recovery.” Article 92, on the law applicable to stolen objects, reads, “(1) The recovery of a stolen object is governed, at the choice of the original owner, by the law of the State in which the object was located at the time of its disappearance or by the law of the State in which the object is located at the time of recovery. (2) Whenever the law of the State in which the object was located at the time of its disappearance does not provide for the protection of the good faith holder, this person may apply for the protection under the law of the State in which the object is located at the time of recovery.” La loi sur le droit international privé: Moniteur belge 2004, p. 57344.
The UNESCO published online the preliminary draft for the International Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions. UNESCO heute 51 (2): 44.
Bhutan passed a statute providing for the registration of all ancient Bhutanese religious artifacts to preserve and prevent illegal export of these objects.
Hicham Abouraam, a Lebanese principal in the antiquities dealers Phoenix Ancient Art, of Geneva and New York, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to one year's probation and a criminal fine of $5000 for falsely representing that an antique silver drinking vessel of Iran, which he imported into the U.S. and then sold through his gallery to a private collector, originated in Syria. Lufkin/Adam, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 5.
The famous bridge “Stari Most” in Mostar, destroyed in 1993 during the Balkan war, reopened. Hamburger Abendblatt, 31 December 2004, p. 5
The Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis opened the new Museum of Islamic Art in Athens as an annex to the Benaki Museum. It has taken 26 years to complete the project, largely because of difficulties in securing the €4.4 million required. 〈http://www.benaki.gr/news/en/index〉
Ten valuable paintings (i.e., of Lanfranco, Parmigianino, D'Arpino) were stolen from the Rome complex Santo Spirito in Sassia. Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2004, p. 10.
The Landgericht Munich (Germany) decided that hundreds of Byzantine icons, mosaics, and artifacts, stolen from Northern Cyprus more than 30 years ago and smuggled to Germany, will be returned to the Republic of Cyprus. These treasures were discovered in 1997 in the possession of the Turkish dealer Aydin Dikmen, who was also involved in the sale of mosaics to Ms. Goldberg in the American case Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus v. Goldberg, Feldman Fine Arts Inc., 917 F.2d 278 (7th Cir. 1990). Culture Without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 15.
Twenty-seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve the “gold train” lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in Miami in 2001 by Hungarian Jewish claimants alleging that property looted from Jews and placed on the infamous train by Hungarian Nazis was never returned to its owners or heirs. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 4. On December 20, 2004, the U.S. Government announced that it had reached the basics of a settlement with the claimants. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 8.
The New Zealand government announced its intention to sign the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the 1995 Unidroit Convention. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 19.
The dispute over Sir Harold Acton's legacy of his Renaissance villa “La Pietra” in Florence to the New York University went to court in Florence. The bequest has been challenged by the children of the woman who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Acton's father. DNA evidence taken from the exhumed bodies of Arthur Acton and Lana Beacci, is offered. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 8.
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (established in 1958 by the British press baron Lord Beaverbrook as a gift to his native province where he was born as William Maxwell Aitkin), and the Beaverbrook Foundation U.K. agreed to arbitrate their dispute over 133 paintings (including works by Botticelli, Hogarth, Sargent, Lucian Freud, and J. M. W. Turner and worth more than $150 million) presently on display at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. At issue is whether the paintings were on loan from the Beaverbrook family to the museum or whether, as the gallery claims, they were donated outright. The Vancouver Sun, July 27, 2004.
Joseph Braude, of Rhode Island, pleaded guilty in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn to smuggling Iraqi antiquities. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 5.
Fifty Russian Orthodox worshippers seized a branch of the Grabar National Restoration Centre in Moscow, Russia's leading conservation laboratory. They kicked restorers out of the seventeenth-century Kadashi Church of the Resurrection, claiming it as church property. The question of who owns the building has stalled in the Moscow courts for years. The church is a rare and exquisite masterpiece of the Moscow Baroque style. It was given to the Grabar Centre by the Soviet government in 1964. Varoli, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 7.
The painting “Landscape in Winter” by Esaias van der Velde (ca. 1591–1630) stolen from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne has been recovered and the thief arrested in the Netherlands. Le Journal des Arts, (198) (September 10–23, 2004): 4.
Eighteen bronze antiques stolen in Iraq were seized by the customs authorities of Jordan. Le Journal des Arts 198 (September 10–23, 2004): 4.
Sudanese security officials recovered 54 historical artifacts stolen last November from the National Museum in Khartoum. The artifacts (worth hundreds of thousands of dollars) include objects from the ancient Nubian kingdoms that ruled Sudan from 300 to 1600 ad. Associated Press, August 17, 2004.
French statute number 2004–809 on local liberties and responsibilities was passed (Journal Officiel 2004, p.14545). Article 95 of this statute decentralizes the work on the inventory of the French cultural heritage. On November 17, 2004, the Ministry of Culture presented a list of 178 historical objects owned by the French State that can be transferred to territorial entities according to the law of August 13, 2004. Bétard, Le Journal des Arts 204 (November 3–16, 2004): 3; Flouquet, Le Journal des Arts 217 (June 10–23, 2005): 6.
Li Haitao, former chief of security for relics from a Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) imperial estate in the northern province of Hebei, China, was sentenced to death for stealing 259 protected items, some of which were national treasures, and pocketed gains of more than $458,000. 〈http://conservation.mongabay.com〉
During the war in Iraq, 399 objects were stolen from the Kuwait museums. They were returned by Iran to Kuwait. Le Journal des Arts (198) (September 10–23, 2004): 4.
The artist Gerhard Richter's loan of 41 of his works was unveiled in the artist's native town Dresden at the Galerie neue Meister in the Albertinum. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, pp. 1, 15; September 2004, p. 22.
Two paintings by Edvard Munch (1863–1944), “The Scream” and “Madonna,” were stolen from Oslo's Munch Museum. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 3.
Last day of the exhibition “From Fra Angelico to Bonnard” with paintings of the collection of the German collector Gustav Rau. This collector donated his collection to UNICEF to be sold for the best of all children. Recently there are rumors that Gustav Rau may have been killed by an excessive amount of drugs. Braun, art, May 2004, p. 118.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, Pope John Paul's II top ecumenical official, handed over the thirteenth-century icon of Our Lady of Kazan in a ceremony in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin of Moscow. The icon was stolen in the early twentieth century from the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Lee, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 7.
The Pergamon Museum in Berlin unveiled the restored second-century bc marble frieze, the Pergamon altar. The cleaning and conservation project, funded by the Berlin authorities, cost $2.8 million and took eight years to complete. The German engineer Carl Humann discovered fragments of the altar during the 1870s in Bergama, western Turkey. The frieze was excavated and removed to Berlin with the agreement of the Turkish authorities of the time. The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 26.
The Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) of Colombia seized a huge shipment of archaeological pieces in the north of Bogotá. Almost 2000 pieces were hidden in a pre-Columbian art gallery. They were illegally excavated from pre-Columbian tombs in the central and south areas of Colombia. 〈http://www.das.gov.co〉
Namibia passed new legislation on the protection of cultural heritage in the National Heritage Act (Act 27 of 2004).
The Cleveland Museum of Art unveiled a newly acquired lifesize bronze statue of Apollo. The museum believes that the work may be associated with the fourth-century bc Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. Kaufman and Ruiz, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 10.
The Guggenheim Foundation of New York conducted feasibility studies for branches in Taichung, Taiwan, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 24.
A fire destroyed approximately 50,000 ancient and valuable books of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany. Roughly 62,000 books were heavily damaged. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, October 31, 2004, p. 64.
A preliminary contract of the sale of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice by Renault to François Pinault has been signed. Le Journal des Arts 214 (April 29–May 12, 2005): 36.
The World Bank announced its approval of a $5 million loan to assist the government of Peru for the protection of cultural sites in the Vilcanota Valley, including the ruined Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Harris, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 22.
The French “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts” held a seminar in Paris on the relation between artists and the organizers of fairs and exhibitions of contemporary art. At issue were the copyright of artists and their right to be asked for permission to present their works and illustrations of them and the remuneration of artists. De Baecque, Le Journal des Arts 201 (October 22–November 4, 2004): 30.
The New Delhi chapter of UNESCO inaugurated the Asian Regional Seminar on the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in New Delhi, Hotel Ashok.
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the Indian opened only a few hundred yards from the U.S. Capitol. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, September 2004, p. 12; Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2004, p. 53.
The Flick Collection opened in the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Kunst der Gegenwart in Berlin. Friedrich Christian Flick (age 60 years) is the grandson of Friedrich Flick, the leading arms manufacturer for the Nazis. Berlin was divided whether to open this collection to the public or not. Harris, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2004, p. 15; and September 2004, p. 22.
UNESCO held a Regional Workshop on the Fight against the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU) of the Italian carabinieri arrested two receivers of stolen Sumerian tablets, vases, coins, bracelets, and other examples of Mesopotamian art and seized the objects. The MSU has mapped out 120 archaeological sites in Iraq. The material seized will be given over to the superintendent of culture Dhi Qar and sent to Baghdad's National Museum.
The U.S. ambassador in Mexico City formally returned a 300-year-old wooden altarpiece to Mexico that thieves had tried to sell in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for $255,000. Associated Press, September 28, 2004.
New efforts are made to ensure that the Californian Packard Humanities Institute can start to continue the excavations in Herculaneum, Italy. Castelli Gattinars, Il Giornale fell'Arte, November 2004, p. 70.
A federal review committee and the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs plan to travel to Hawaii in the next months to hold separate hearings to help resolve two explosive issues involving the repatriation of sacred objects from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, to native Hawaiian groups. 〈http://starbulletin.com〉
Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Colorado—a leading research and development facility and supplier of proprietary, biologically active plant-derived ingredients to the natural products and pharmaceutical industries—has entered into collaboration agreement for plant collection and product development with Inca Health, an agroindustrial company based in Lima, Peru. Operating in full compliance with the United Nations Convention of Biodiversity, Unigen and Inca Health will work closely together with indigenous tribes to collect native plants from the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest and Andes Mountains that have a history of ethnomedicinal use to identify lead compounds for the development of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and functional food products. Press release, Lexis-Nexis, September 2004.
Italy passed regulations to declassify certain cultural objects and thereby facilitate their trade, Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2004, p. 63.
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow opened the Shchukin exhibition of paintings of the former collector Shchukin. The paintings were nationalized in 1918 and since then the Shchukin family in western countries had not recognized the nationalization of their family collection. IJCP 2005, p. 135 at July 15, 2003. Now the Shchukin family has made peace with Russia. Varoli, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, pp. 1, 6.
The Israel High Court of Justice in Jerusalem issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Israel Antiquities Authority, the public security minister and the prime minister from authorizing then Waqf (the Muslim Religious Authority) to remove from the Temple Mount tons of soil assumed to be rich in archaeological artifacts. The soil was excavated four years ago during the construction of large gates to the underground mosque in the area known as Solomon's Stables. 〈http://www.haaretz.com〉
The first Biennial of Polish Contemporary Art opened in the City of Lodz. The Art Newspaper, April 2004, p. 3.
The Samoa Government signed an agreement with the University of California to research an indigenous tree, in the hope it will lead to a cure for HIV/AIDS. Researchers at Berkeley believe that bark of the mamala tree contains a prostratin gene that could help create an anti-AIDS drug. The agreement also allows for samples of the bark of the tree to be analyzed in California. Radio New Zealand International, October 1, 2004.
Ancient Chinese objects (nine small items of carved Chinese jade) were taken in an apparently well-organized raid from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and, later in the month, 15 pieces of jewelry from the British Museum. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 15. The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 14.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Turin became the first Italian museum with a trustee status and became a “Fondazione,” Martini, Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2004, p. 4; The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 14.
The Louvre of Paris bought for €2.8 million a Greek horse head, which could have been made by a precursor of the Parthenon sculptures. Russell, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 52.
The second International Conference “Ancient Theatres in the Mediterranean Area. Programs of Conservation and Support for their Use” convened in Siracuse, Sicily and passes the “Carta di Siracusa,” calling for the conversation and maintenance of ancient theatres. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 6.
In Seoul, the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art opened. It is composed of three buildings designed by famous architects, including the Swiss architect Mario Botta. Roberston, Le Journal des Arts 201 (October 22–November 4, 2004): 6.
Egyptian Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahed announced that a group of 619 objects, including at least 485 antiquities, with two Graeco-Roman sarcophagi, were seized in England by the British authorities and returned to Egypt. Apparently the objects had been stolen from the Egyptian Museum in 2000. Several persons were arrested on charges of stealing the objects from the museum, aided by some museum staff, and of smuggling them into England via Switzerland. Jerome M. Eisenberg, Minerva 16 (1) (January/February 2005): 7.
Heist of three textiles, the most impressive fabrics on exhibit in the Regional Museum of Ica, Peru. Of the thousands of spectacular examples of Andean textile heritage that have been excavated in the Department of Ica, only these three have been returned so that citizens of the region could see them in their Regional Museum. Peters, Culture without Context, 15 (Autumn 2004) pp. 4–6.
Opening of the exhibition “Der Geschmiedete Himmel” (The Forged Sky) in Halle, Germany, exhibiting the sky disc of Nebra, which was discovered in 1999 and turned out to be at least 3600 years old. Die Zeit, October 14, 2004, p. 35.
Opening of the exhibition “Raphael: From Urbino to Rome” in London. This exhibition created difficult questions whether Raphael paintings should be lent by foreign galleries. Bailey, Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2004, p. 31; Thomas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 3, 2004, p. 33.
The German industrialist and art collector Frieder Burda opened his museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, designed by the American architect Richard Meier. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 23, 2004, p. 31; Azimi, Le Journal des Arts 206 (January 7–20, 2005): 35.
The Musée d'Orsay in Paris bought at auction with Sotheby's of New York the painting “The Reception of the Grand Condè at Versailles” by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) for €1 million. The painting was originally acquired by William H. Vanderbilt for $23,000 directly from the artist in 1878. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 65; The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 22.
The director of the St. Petersburg Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovski, and the mayor of Mantova, Italy, signed a protocol of intention to collaborate in matters of science and study between the cities and their museums. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 1; Harris/Martini, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 10.
From Chateau Gingins, Switzerland, 15 vases by the artist Emile Gallè (1846–1904) on loan for an Art Nouveau exhibition and insured for Swiss Francs 4 million were stolen. The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 2.
The Museum of London hosted a two-day symposium at its museum, bringing together speakers from the United Kingdom, America, Europe, Africa, and Australia to explore questions about the treatment, display, and interpretation of human remains.
Reopening of the numismatic collection of the Berlin museums. Still missing is the library taken from Berlin to Russia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 26, 2004, p. 48.
Germany insists that the Rubens painting “Tarquinius and Lucrezia” (ICJP 2005, p. 145) be returned by Russia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 7, 2004, p. 35. German courts and attorney generals started investigations about the legality of transactions concerning the painting. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 8, 2004, p. 40. The Landgericht (county court) Potsdam held that the painting was acquired in good faith in Russia. art, December 2004, p. 136. The federal government considers filing a lawsuit for recovery of private property. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, December 19, 2004, p. 21.
The Cultural Heritage Organization reported that two smugglers convicted of looting thousands of antiquities from major sites near Jiroft, Iran, were hanged. This is the first time that such a drastic penalty had been served on smugglers of antiquities in Iran. Minerva 16 (2) (March/April 2005): 3; Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 9; Harris, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 5; Minerva, March/April 2005, p. 3.
A Norwegian television film alleged that the British Museum in London has acquired looted Buddhist scrolls. The birch bark scrolls in Kharosthi script, from the 1st century ad, are the oldest surviving Buddhist texts and the earliest manuscripts in any Indic language. They have been dubbed “The Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism.” The Afghan minister of culture said the Hadda Museum in Afghanistan had been looted. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 5.
On his visit to Ethiopia, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was given a letter calling for the return of treasures looted in Maqdala in 1868. More than 500 objects (including a solid gold crown) captured from Emperor Tewodros are now in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library in London. The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 4; The Art Newspaper, March 2005, p. 22.
Two Kandinsky paintings stolen in Moscow and seized in Geneva/Switzerland arrived back in Moscow and created confusion with respect to their authenticity. The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 10.
The twenty-first century Museum of Contemporary Art opened in Kanazawa, Japan, and broke down the Japanese resistance to contemporary art. Wilson, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 19.
Jordanian customs officials seized six ancient Iraqi artifacts believed to have been stolen from Iraqi museums at the Karama border post. 15,000 artifacts are still missing from Iraqi museums. Al-Fazeera News, October 2004.
The Miami-Dade County voters approved a $552.7 million bond issue to fund cultural projects that include an allocation of $100 million toward the construction of a new $175 million Miami Art Museum building in Bicentennial Park, an abandoned, city-owned tract on the shore of Biscayne Bay. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 15.
Wal-Mart of the United States opened a supermarket only 1500 meters from the palace of the ancient rulers of Teotihuacan (north of Mexico City), the largest and grandest American pre-Columbian city that flourished between the first and seventh centuries ad before they were destroyed by fire. Protest of local people fell on deaf ears, and UNESCO sent an emergency mission to Teotihuacan. The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 28.
Conference held in Berlin to celebrate 175 years of the German Archaeological Institute with its first headquarters in the Palazzo Caffarelli in Capitol Hill in Rome, later in Casa Tarpea. The early members of the institute were the Prince of Prussia (later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV), Wilhelm von Humboldt, the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the French scholar Honorè Albert Duc de Luynes, the British ambassador and art collector Sir William Hamilton, and the scholars and diplomats Barthold Georg Niebuhr and Christian Karl Josias Bunsen. The first president became Duc de Blacas d'Aulps. Siebler, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 10, 2004, p. 44.
The Spanish defense minister returned the cross of the central dome of St. Sophia's Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod, Russia. The cross was given in Moscow to Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all Russia and will be finally brought to Veliky Novgorod. The cross was brought down in a bombardment in 1942 when Spanish troops, allies of Nazi Germany, occupied Novgorod. Spanish soldiers took the cross to Spain. They saved it from destruction and kept it as a trophy at the military engineering academy in Madrid. Andrei Letyagin, RIA Novosti, November 15, 2004.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened their expanded building in Manhattan designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 1; Hall, Times Literary Supplement, February 25, 2005, p. 18; Irving, Le Journal des Arts 203 (November 10–December 2, 2004): p. 3; Irving, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 24; Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 32.
The court of appeal of the city of Basel, Switzerland, decided the dispute concerning the estate of Ms. Kirchbach, the widow of the art collector Kurt Kirchbach. Her attorney Stauffacher and Eckbert von Bohlen ujnd Halbach claim to be the heirs of Ms. Kirchbach and owners of the collection Kirchbach. The court decided that Stauffacher, as her attorney, could not be validly named as her heir because of his conflict of interest. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, December 23, 2004, p. 11.
The Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Istanbul left for Rome to receive from Pope John Paul II relics which had been taken in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade when the City of Constantinople was looted by the crusaders. Schlötzer, Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 28, 2004, p. 11; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 29, 2004, p. 12.
The Musée du Louvre in Paris opened the newly restored “Galerie d'Apollon.” Marozeau, Le Journal des Arts, 204 (December 3–16, 2004): 3; Hanimann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 27, 2004, p. 35.
The Museum of London announced that it will bury 350 human remains in the City of London Cemetery at Manor Park. The skeletal remains are disarticulated bones and have been deemed to be of no scientific value. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, November 2004, p. 13.
The Louvre of Paris announced that it will open an outpost at the Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 2006. The art loaned by the Louvre will go on show in a new $130 million wing of the museum currently under construction to a design by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 22.
Five German tourists were arrested for stealing 130 artifacts from Tassili National Park in Algeria. They were sentenced to three months in prison and fined 300,000 Algerian dinar ($4300), which will go to the authorities responsible for the site. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 17; Kebir, Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 2, 2004, p. 15; The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 24.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired a masterpiece of Duccio di Buoninsegna (1278–ca.1318) “Madonna with Child” for €34.87 million ($45 million), the so-called “Stroganoff or Stoclet-Madonna” Le Journal des Arts 204 (December 3–16, 2004): 25; Riese, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 2, 2004, p. 37; Jeromack, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 13 Harris, The Art Newspaper, April 2005, p. 12.
Romania's new National Gallery of Contemporary Art opened to the public in Wing E4 of the vast Palace of the Parliament, popularly referred to as “Ceausescu's Palace.” Sorbello, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 20.
The exhibition of privately owned art treasures, mainly held by German aristocrats, opened in Munich under the name “Schatzhäuser Deutschlands” (Germany's Treasure Houses). Maak, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, November 21, 2004, p. 25.
Christie's appointed Monica Dugot as director of restitution specializing in war provenance art. Ms. Dugot was previously director of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Banking Department. Since 2000 Lucian Simmons has performed the same role with Sotheby's. Adam, The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 46.
The Italian State and a foundation bought the Torlonia collection of Roman antiquities. art, December 2004, p. 128.
Federal authorities in the United States returned to Yemen an antique Arabic tablet stolen from a museum in Yemen a decade ago that ended up at a New York auction house. Associated Press, December 1, 2004.
The art fair “Art” Basel Miami Beach opened in Florida the third time. Schaernack, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 4–5, 2004, p. 37; Azimi, Le Journal des Arts 203 (November 19–December 2, 2004): 20; Gleadell, ARTnews, February 2005, p. 84.
The Kabul Museum opened its first exhibit since the war, a display of artifacts from the remote region of Nuristan in the northeast of Afghanistan, that have been part of the collection since its foundation in 1931. Harris, The Arts Newspaper, January 2005, p. 14.
The Italian Constitutional Court approved the regional statute of Toscana, which attributed to this region the protection as well as the evaluation of cultural property. Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2005, p. 1.
The Leipzig Museum of Visual Arts reopened after it had to leave the old building of the German Reichsgericht for the Federal Court for Administrative Law (Bundesverwaltungsgericht). Werner Hofmann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 6, 2004, p. 40; The Art Newspaper, December 2004, p. 20; art, December 2004, p. 18; Clintberg, Le Journal des Arts 207 (January 21–February 3, 2005): 7; Clintberg, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 11.
An arbitration tribunal decided that there will be no restitution of real estate and royal castles to the Habsburg family of Austria. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, December 11–12, 2004, p. 6.
The 84 manuscripts of Napoleon's memoirs, written on St. Helena between 1817 and 1820, were sold in Paris for €250,000. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 8, 2004, p. 9.
The law for the Emergency Protection for Iraqi Cultural Antiquities Act of 2004 was signed by President Bush. The law gives him the authority to impose restrictions on any cultural materials that have been illegally taken out of Iraq. Minerva 16 (2) (March/April 2005): 3.
The Badminton Cabinet sold for €24,6 million at the Christie's auction in London. The Duke of Beaufort ordered it in 1726 and 30 craftsmen in the Toscana/Italy worked for six years to finish it in 1732. Bought by Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein for his museum in Vienna, it is the most expensive piece of furniture in the world. Adam, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 5.
The Montgomery County Orphans' Court in Norristown agreed that the art gallery of the Barnes Foundation could move from Merion (suburb of Philadelphia) to Philadelphia and that the restrictive provisions of the statutes of the Barnes Foundation may be changed and liberalized. Patricia Horn, ARTnews June 2005, p. 54; Schweizer, Kunstrecht und Urheberrecht (3): 65–74; Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 9; Horn, ARTnews, February 2005, p. 49. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will hear an appeal brought by a student at the Foundation. The Art Newspaper, May 2005, p. 20.
The New York dealer Ely Sakhai and his office manager pleaded guilty to a 15-year international forgery scheme that simultaneously launched original and fake versions of the same painting by Paul Gauguin, Auguste Renoir, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee, and other artists into separate sales in May 2000 at both Christie's and Sotheby's in New York. The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 39. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now looking for works faked by Ely Sakkai. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 43.
The French Cour de cassation overturned a lower court judgment (Cour d'appel de Paris, October 27, 2004, Dalloz 2005, Jur., 493) on the validity of a sale of a painting of Camille Claudel (1864–1943). The buyer was an expert of Camille Claudel (companion of Auguste Rodin) and a restorer of art objects and pleaded having made a mistake, because the painting was no longer listed in the most recent catalogue raisonnèe, but included in a former one. The lower court has to decide anew whether the sale was valid. Schmitt, Le Journal des Arts 212 (April 1–14, 2005): 26.
Report on the activities of Monzer, a 27-year-old grave robber from the Hebron area who learned his looting skills from his father. His team works at night; the antiquities unearthed end up in London and New York, and the only thing that frightens him is the thought of the djinn, or ghost said to inhabit the burial chambers. Some thieves apparently bring Muslim holy men to recite incantations and drive the djinn away. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 10.
The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin designed by Peter Eisenman was inaugurated by the President of the German Parliament. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 16, 2004, p. 4.
Twenty-four archaeological artifacts of the unknown collection of Dr. K. were sold by the Crédit Municipal de Paris, the city monopoly of pawnbroking in the capital. A French art dealer said that this is perhaps a way of laundering “hot” goods. Azimi, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 45.
The Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña opened again in Barcelona after 18 years of restoration. Bosco, Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2004, p. 26.
The American pop-artist Tom Wesselmann (1931–2004) passed away. Herzog, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, December 22, 2004, p. 33; Régnier, Le Journal des Arts 206 (January 7–20, 2005): 3.
A municipal judge in Buenos Aires/Argentina ordered the closure of the exhibition “León Ferrari retrospective; works 1954–2004” that includes anti-clerical work by Argentinean artists (b. 1920) at the city-run Centro Cultural Recoleta. Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 7.
The Israeli police filed criminal charges against four men, including both a prominent collector and a respected antiquities dealer, accusing them of creating and marketing forgeries of rare Early Christian and Jewish antiquities. Minerva 16 (2) (March/April 2005): 4.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London closed temporarily 38 rooms for security reasons, following a third theft in three months. Bailey, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 18, Lethbridge, ARTnews, March 2005, p. 70.
Five Roman artifacts, worth around Australian $300,000. were stolen from the Australian National University. Culture without Context 15 (Autumn 2004): 19; Minerva, March/April 2005, p. 3.
A new organization, the Indigenous Archaeological Association (IAA) has been founded at the occasion of the conference of the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) in Armindale, Australia. The IAA will monitor archaeologists to ensure they appropriately consult Aboriginal communities on whose land they are working. ABC Science Online, December 16, 2004.
German customs officials seized the last leg of a giant statue of Saddam Hussein. The leg was allegedly stolen by British soldiers as a war trophy and smuggled into Germany. It was sold to an art collector who advertised it on the Internet. The Art Newspaper, January 2005, p. 2.
The trustees of the San Diego Museum of Art unanimously voted to return a painting stolen from a small church in San Juan Tepemazalco, Mexico, even before an official request for restitution has been received. Picard, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 15.
A Canadian family won a major legal battle when a judge in the Czech Republic ruled that it should gain possession of 20 paintings from a valuable art collection assembled by the family's Jewish grandfather before World War II. Adams, ARTnews, February 2005, p. 72.
To curb the growing trend of art-related thefts in the United States, the FBI established the country's first national art-crime team consisting of eight FBI special agents. Parmar, ARTnews, February 2005, p. 60.
The Italian “Comando Carabinieri Ministero Pubblica Istruzione-Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico,” created in 1969 as the Italian special police investigating art-related crimes, recovered in 2004 28,000 art objects, 17,000 archaeological objects, and 2374 fakes. Castelli Gattinara, Il Giornale dell'Arte, March 2005, p. 10.
Babylon has suffered serious damage since the arrival of American troops, according to British Museum specialist John Curtis. The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 1.
Mr. Saatchi of London sold Damien Hirst's “Shark” for $12 million 14 years ago. Mr. Saatchi unveiled the British artist's sculpture of a shark suspended in formaldehyde at his London gallery, a work commissioned by him for £50,000. This transaction makes Hirst (age 39 years) the single most expensive living artist, with the exception of the American artist Jasper Johns. The Art Newspaper, February 2005, pp. 1, 11; Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2005, pp. 1, 40.
Iran and France signed an agreement to cooperate in archaeological projects. The two countries will work together in such areas as conservation, excavations, and the organization of exhibitions. Darcos, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 5.
The ex-Harvard professor and disregarded former doctor Vilas Likhite was arrested in Los Angeles. He was accused of attempting to sell forged paintings by famous artists. Adam, The Art Newspaper, February 2005, p. 43.
In Istanbul, Turkey, the first Turkish Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art opened. Harris, Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2005, p. 27.
Five men, including the former head of the antiquities laboratories at the Israel Museum Rafael Braun, were indicted in a Jerusalem court as collaborators in the forgery of an inscription on an ivory votive pomegranate. The inscription was forged to make it appear that the object was an artifact from the first temple, which was destroyed in 586 bc. The object had been bought by the Israel Museum in highly secretive negotiations in 1988 for $600,000. The Art Newspaper, February 2004, p. 3.
Italian police seized approximately 100 antiques illegally excavated by tomb robbers in Italy and hidden in Naples and other places. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, December 20, 2004, p. 23.
Several mediaeval documents concerning cloisters in Bologna and discovered in the archive of the German State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were transferred to the University of Bologna. These documents may have been looted in World War II. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 24, 2004, p. 34.
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