Cash-Strapped Italian Government to Convert Embassy to Food Emporium?

CPO has heard from a reliable source that the cash-strapped Italian Government is in talks with Eataly, the popular Italian Food Emporium, to take over its beautiful, modernistic Palazzo style Embassy in Washington, D.C. As part of the plan, Embassy officials are said to be considering auctioning off the building's impressive display of antiquities through Sotheby�s or Christie�s in New York. Alternatively, they will remain in situ for the enjoyment of Eataly patrons.

Eataly�s fall-back plan is to negotiate with the GSA to lease one of the federal government�s neo-classical buildings for the same purpose. Buildings mentioned include Union Station and the Art Deco style FTC headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. Meanwhile, less certain are plans of local Greek entrepreneurs to create �pop up� restaurants in the nearby Greek and Cypriot Embassies. 

More Problems Discovered at Pompeii

A week after reports surfaced about thefts of antique books from a historic library in Naples, Italian authorities have announced another arrest, this time of the head of a restoration firm that allegedly skimmed monies meant for the restoration of Pompeii.  

While it's good to see Italian authorities finally clamp down on some corruption, such news once again suggests that import restrictions, repatriation demands and the like are diversions from what really ails Italy's cultural patrimony.

Reaction to Hugh Eakin

The New York Times has published a series of Letters to the Editor concerning Hugh Eakin's recent opinion piece regarding repatriations.   Barbara Newsome, the founder of the Archaeological Conservancy, discusses both her organization's efforts here in the US as well as the importance of museums and collectors in preserving the artifacts of others because they value them.    Noted cultural property expert Bill Pearlstein questions whether archaeological looting is really driven by American demand given statements by the Italian police.  Finally, Fiona Rose-Greenland sees repatriation demands as nationalistic in character and part of power politics.   Perhaps, the archaeology-over-all perspective should not be allowed to dominate this debate. 

Theft of Rare Books Comes to Light

Here is more evidence, if any was needed, that Italy should be focusing on protecting its cultural treasures today rather than seeking out every last pottery shard that may have left Italy years ago when sensibilities were different. 

Update:  More on the story, with these observations:

The director of the Vatican Museums has warned that Italy's cultural heritage is "vanishing" after prosecutors in Naples said two more people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in a "premeditated, organised and brutal" sacking of the city's 16th century Girolamini library.

Antonio Paolucci said he was "saddened but not surprised" by the devastating losses of the historic institution in Naples, where thousands of rare and antique books were last year found to have disappeared. The alleged plundering, which prosecutors have been investigating for the past nine months, was symptomatic of a country whose rich cultural heritage was at risk from various factors including theft and neglect, he said.

"In the Italy of a thousand museums and libraries, our immense national heritage is vanishing � and the cultural fabric of the country is coming apart," Paolucci, a former culture minister, told the Italian daily La Stampa.

He said a lack of protection for the country's treasures was having "disastrous effects" and was particularly harmful for small institutions that did not have the same level of security or prestige as, for instance, the Uffizi gallery in Florence. Urging the state to take better care of its heritage, he added: "Every looted painting or plundered library is a wound to civilisation which cannot be healed � a disaster for Italy and humanity as a whole."

Just Say No

Hugh Eakin has written a thoughtful piece about the American museum community's capitulation to ever escalating repatriation demands.  Museum trustees have a fiduciary duty to protect their collections from legally deficient claims, but that seems to not be much of a consideration in the face of bad press ginned up by the archaeological lobby and sympathetic journalists aligned with the cultural bureaucracies in places like Greece and Italy.

Eakin rightly notes that repatriation of artifacts that left their supposed countries of origin decades ago does nothing to protect archaeological sites from any current looting.   I would add all the hype about repatriation is in fact a diversion from addressing the problems at the source by tackling over-regulation, choking bureaucracy, under-funding and endemic corruption in places like Greece and Italy.

Perhaps if museums just said no to repatriation claims they might actually encourage some rational discussion of the real issues facing preservation of  artifacts from the past.  Any such discussion should start with some recognition that foreign countries can't possibly preserve, study and display all the artifacts they lay claim to, and protecting artifacts rather than bureaucrats should be the first priority.

Now, Where Does One Go to Get Their Reputation Back?

After years of rumor and innuendo largely fed through archaeo-bloggers and friendly "access journalists," Italian cultural authorities have notified Princeton's antiquities curator, Michael Padgett, that he is no longer the subject of a criminal investigation.  Now, where does Padgett go to get his reputation back?  Certainly, not to the archaeo-bloggers and access journalists who are so quick to condemn but are so slow to exonerate.  Indeed, despite their connections to Italian authorities, they have yet to so much as acknowlege this news. 

Rome's Bio-Cultural Patrimony Deserves Protection Against Italy's Archaeologists

Italy's state funded archaeologists have their hands full, what with the ruins of Pompeii, the Colosseum, and Nero's Golden House falling down due to underfunding, incompetence and neglect.  Yet, instead of facing these big issues, they have declared war on Rome's stray cats and the dedicated volunteers that care for them.   

One legend has it that the cats descend from the lions of ancient times.  Once eating Christians was disallowed, they adapted by making do with handouts and the occasional mouse and evolved over time to their current dimunitive size. 

Whether this legend is true or not, Italian authorities have certainly declared the cats officially part Rome's "bio-cultural patrimony."

So its high time to protect the cats against Italy's archaeologists and cultural bureacrats.

Europe Turns to Corporate Sponsors for Cultural Heritage

Purists are agast, but financial realities have caused cash strapped countries like Italy to turn to corporate sponsors to save crumbling cultural sites. 

Hopefully, the same countries will next work on deaccessioning duplicates they have no funds to adequately care for anyway.

Congratulations to Jerry Eisenberg

CPO congratulates NY antiquities dealer Jerry Eisenberg.

The President of the Republic of Italy, the Hon. Giorgio Napolitano, awarded Eisenberg with the Order of the Star of Italy and the title of Ufficiale (Officer) at a ceremony that took place in  NY on June 2nd. 

Coins Weekly states that the Order of the Star of Italy is bestowed upon those who have provided a meaningful contribution to the prestige of Italy while promoting friendly relations and cooperation between Italy and other countries.

Cooperation Fails to End Confrontation

For more evidence that American Museums' efforts to cooperate with the cultural bureaucracies of source countries like Italy has not bought them the peace that was promised, read Jason Felch's blog about the latest efforts to send the "Getty Bronze" to Italy.  See http://chasingaphrodite.com/2012/05/04/the-gettys-bronze-italian-court-upholds-order-to-seize-a-getty-masterpiece/

He states,

Since 2005, the Getty has voluntarily returned 49 antiquities in its collection, acknowledging they were the product of illegal excavations and had been smuggled out of their country of origin. Hundreds of other objects were returned by other American dealers, collectors and museums. In the wake of those returns, several American museums struck cooperative deals with Italy and Greece that allow for long-term loans of ancient art.

But such agreements have not shielded American museums from further claims that ancient art in their display cases are the product of a black market responsible for the destruction of archaeological sites around the world. In March, Turkish officials revealed they were seeking the return of dozens of allegedly looted antiquities from the Getty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Harvard�s Dumbarton Oaks.

It's high time for American Museums to rethink their efforts to appease source countries and the AIA.  Such appeasement does little in the end, but encourage other, ever more aggressive claims.

Latest Pompeii Collapse: Will State Control Model Collapse Next?

There has been another collapse at Pompeii despite recent EU funding efforts.  See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9219470/Pompeii-wall-collapses-despite-new-conservation-initiative.html

Yet, the US State Department, the Italian cultural bureaucracy, and the archaeological lobby still maintain that the Italian State should control anything old as it is the best steward to conserve, study and protect it.

No state has enough resources to protect everything, particularly one teetering on the edge of bankruptcy like Italy.  The sooner this basic fact is recognized, the sooner more rational approaches to cultural heritage preservation-- including ones that embrace the value of private collecting-- will be tried, rather than the current approach that assumes a nation state should control everything and anything old.

Italian Museum Burns Art

I guess this can be written off as a publicity stunt, but it does demonstrate how badly Italy's sovereign debt crisis is impacting funding for the arts:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-italy-art-idUSBRE83I14920120419

It is unrealistic to think such stunts will somehow restore funding-- there is none to be had.

Instead, Italy, like Greece, has to give up with the pretense that the State should be a guardian and funder for everything of cultural worth. Instead, it should concentrate on protecting cultural treasures like Pompeii, and frankly allow interested members of the public to help conserve the rest, through collecting, yes.

Mali MOU Renewal Overtaken By Events?

With one exception, no MOU restricting imports of cultural goods has ever been allowed to expire.

Yet, the assumption behind MOU's -- that the US should help State Parties to the UNESCO Convention control cultural goods found within their borders because nation states are the best protectors of their own cultural patrimony-- has been sorely tested, first by the economic meltdowns in Greece and Italy, and now even more clearly by the descent of Mali into chaos.

A recent military coup and the take over of important cultural sites like Timbuktu by well armed Islamic rebels again raises fundamental questions about whether the State Department and its allies in the archaeological community are really furthering the protection of cultural artifacts or whether their knee-jerk repatriationism does more harm than good.

For more on the situation in Mali, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/africa/rebels-take-timbuktu-in-mali.html

To read the arguments for renewing the MOU wiht Mali, see
http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=O%252BSR%252BPS;rpp=25;po=0;D=DOS-2012-0012

On April 24, 2012, CPAC will conduct a public hearing that will discuss the proposed renewal of the MOU with Mali.

PAS on Tour

Roger Bland of the PAS will be speaking about the PAS and Treasure Act before a number of AIA chapters around the country. See http://finds.org.uk/news/stories/article/id/233

Given the audience, the lectures will touch not only successes of the system but gaps in the system as far as archaeologists are concerned. See http://www.archaeological.org/lectures/abstracts/5775

No system is perfect, but hopefully the AIA grandees will also pause to consider how the system in Britain and Wales compares with the systems (such as they are) in places like Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy, when it comes to encouraging members of the public to report their finds.

High Tech Witch Hunt?

The authors of Chasing Aphrodite have now embarked on a new plan. Apparently, they hope to put out documentation received from Italian and Greek law enforcement onto the web, and then rely on activists to play the part of vigilantes in identifying looted material on the market and in museums. See http://chasingaphrodite.com/2012/03/12/introducing-wikiloot-your-chance-to-fight-the-illicit-antiquities-trade/

I agree with the following comment on their blog:

Elizabeth Marlowe March 12, 2012 at 6:33 pm Reply

Has the photo archive been made available to the museums, dealers and auction houses yet? The �gotcha� approach of this project seems unnecessarily antagonistic. If the goal is to embarrass museums, then yes, let members of the public catch them with their pants down. But if the goal is to track down as many of the pieces in the Medici archive as possible, then wouldn�t it be more productive to let the museums check the archives against their own inventories and come clean first? And THEN post the photos of whatever pieces still haven�t been located?

I would also note that this project presumably blurs the lines between investigative journalism and activism. But that is more an issue of journalistic ethics than cultural property law.

Chasing Aphrodite at the National Press Club

Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, investigative journalists and authors of "Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World�s Richest Museum" will join Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum and Arthur Houghton, a former curator at the Getty Museum, to discuss looted antiquities and transparency in American museums at 6 p.m. Jan. 24 in the National Press Club ballroom.

The event will be moderated by James Grimaldi, investigative reporter for the Washington Post.

In "Chasing Aphrodite," their gripping art world detective story, Felch and Frammolino reveal the inner workings of the J. Paul Getty Museum and its quest to build a worldclass collection of Roman and Greek art. Hubris, greed and ethics are key themes in the book, which culminates with Italy�s criminal indictment of the Getty�s antiquities curator and the return of $1 billion of ancient objects from U.S. museums and private collections.

"Chasing Aphrodite" gives an unparalleled glimpse into the reality that lies behind many of America�s collections of ancient art. It is the culmination of five years of reporting that began with a Los Angeles Times series for which Felch and Frammolino were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.

The National Press Club is located at 529 14th Street, NW - 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045.

Another Triumph for the Treasure Act

A British Metal Detectorist has discovered and reported an immensely important hoard of Viking era coins and silver artifacts. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8955955/Viking-hoard-provides-new-clues-to-previously-unknown-ruler.html and http://finds.org.uk/news

The hoard contains a coin of a previously unknown ruler as well as coins from from far off Germany and the Middle East. More proof that even in the "Dark Ages" coins travelled long distances from their place of manufacture.

Although archaeological cranks may still find reason to criticize the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme and the cooperation if fosters among members of the public, archaeologists, and museum professionals, how many such hoards are voluntarily reported in their preferred models of cultural heritage management such as Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Italy and Cyprus?

Germany Told to Save Europe

Europeans (and Americans) are looking to Germany to "save Europe" by doing more to prop up the bankrupt Greek economy and the ever more shaky Italian one. See
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d29da7fc-19ee-11e1-b9d7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1f6othzXp

However, throwing more money at the Greeks and the Italians will only delay the inevitable. What is really needed is to break down the internal barriers in each country that have led to special interests strangling any chance for much needed economic reforms.

But this is a blog about cultural property issues. On that score, isn't it funny that self-righteous archaeologists hold up Italy and Greece as models for all to emulate? Meanwhile, rational systems like those in Germany and the United Kingdom that recognize the importance of collectors and the trade in cultural goods to the appreciation of ancient culture and its ultimate preservation, get little but scorn heaped on them, largely because they don't allow archaeologists to monopolize policy toward cultural property issues.

Archaeologists assume that government control over all cultural artifacts is the answer-- but how can this be, particularly in the current environment where these governments and their economic and cultural systems that favor the connected few are facing default?

Chasing Aphrodite at the Walters

CHASING APHRODITE
A Story of Antiquities Purchases, Confidential Sources & Ethical Dilemmas

Authors Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino will field questions from local WYPR radio host Tom Hall and the audience, relating to their controversial new book Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World�s Richest Museum. This is the first-ever presentation of this topic in an art museum, and participants will also include Baltimorean Arthur Houghton, a one-time curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum and major source for the book, and Walters Director Gary Vikan, who will help frame the broader question of how new cultural property guidelines might affect encyclopedic museum collections.

Mining their confidential sources at the Getty, Felch and Frammolino reconstruct a compelling narrative that takes the reader�and will take the audience�through an exotic and sometimes ethically challenging world of antiquities acquisitions. The authors will provide their own account of how Getty museum officials grappled with the question of acquiring Greek and Roman antiquities for over 30 years and the eventual indictment of the museum�s antiquities curator in 2005. A reception will follow.
*
Where
The Walters Art Museum, Graham Auditorium
When
Saturday, October 29, 2 p.m.
Price
Free

Bureaucratic Mess Engulfs Pompeii

In 79 AD a volcanic eruption engulfed Pompeii. Now, it is bureucratic infighting and finger pointing that have engulfed the site, crippleing any coherent response to the problems of preserving the site for future generations.

The Art Newspaper has another report about the inept bureaucratic response to the collapse of the House of the Gladiators at Pompeii. See
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Controversy+over+Pompeii+funding/24455

The State Department Cultural Heritage Center, the AIA and the Italian cultural bureaucracy may be still celebrating yet another extension of the MOU with Italy and its expansion to include coins, but the realities on the ground suggest that Italy's real problem is its own cultural bureaucrats and politicians.

One really needs to ask whether the moral support our State Department provides through such MOU's does anything other than to help prop up an utterly rotten system at the expense of American collectors, dealers and museums.