News & Issues

The gentleman thief who took a leaf out of the British Library’s rarest travel books — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-21-2008 01:48 PM

To staff at the British Library, the well-dressed Iranian gentleman was a regular and well-respected visitor to the private reading room where he studied valuable ancient texts.

Court rules painting was ‘stolen’ by Nazis — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-20-2008 05:38 AM

federal appeals panel ruled yesterday that a painting owned by a German baroness that long hung on her walls in Rhode Island had, in effect, been stolen from a Jewish art collector during the Holocaust.

Spain: Only thing to discuss with U.S. firm is return of treasure — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-20-2008 05:27 AM

).- Spain's Culture Ministry said Tuesday that it had received "no offer of any kind" from Odyssey Marine Exploration to share $500 million in coins, adding that the only thing Madrid wants to discuss with the U.S. treasure-hunting firm is "the complete return of all the cultural wealth it plundered."

Cleveland Museum of Art strikes deal with Italy to return 14 ancient artworks — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-20-2008 05:26 AM

In the first agreement of its kind between the Cleveland Museum of Art and a foreign government, the museum today agreed to return 14 artworks to Italy after officials proved that the objects had been illegally excavated or exported.

US museum head says Mexico should get Mayan jade — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-20-2008 05:20 AM

The director of Harvard's Peabody Museum said Tuesday he wants to return about 50 ancient carved Mayan jade pieces to Mexico, almost a century after a U.S. consul dredged the artifacts from the sacred lake at the ruins of Chichen Itza.

The Stolen Past -West Bank Looting — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-17-2008 06:08 PM

For a thousand years the ruins of Khirbet Tawas, a Byzantine jewel crowning a gentle slope planted in olive trees, stood southwest of Hebron. Graceful rows of columns stretched the length of the basilica, watching over the church's ornate mosaic floor. Then, in 2000, the second intifada struck with the force of an earthquake. As Palestinians fought Israeli troops, the West Bank became all but ungovernable. Soon the Israelis set up a web of security checkpoints, sealed off the region, and barred most Palestinians from working inside Israel. Jobless men looked for cash wherever they could find it. Armed with shovels, a small band descended on Khirbet Tawas.

Talks start with South Korea to retrieve stolen dinosaur fossils — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-16-2008 08:39 AM

Authorities are refusing to pay two billion baht to a South Korean businessman for the return of 130-million-year-old dinosaur fossils smuggled out of the country five years ago.

Germany returns 18 Aborigine skulls home | — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-15-2008 04:38 PM

German medical museum will return the skulls of 18 Australian | Aborigines | that were taken from the continent more than a century ago. |

Fool's Gold How stolen ancient artifacts have turned up in famous museums around the world. — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-15-2008 04:15 PM

Early this year, officials at the Metropolitan Museum of Art trussed up one of the prizes of its collection, an ancient vase known as the Euphronios krater, and sent it back to Italy. Italian authorities had presented evidence that the piece had been looted from a tomb near Rome less than a year before the Met paid $1 million for it in 1972. Faced with the prospect of a lawsuit and a ban on receiving any future loans from Italian museums, the Met, writes former Washington Post and New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman, "stalled, stonewalled, and would not be swayed -- until it was forced to do so

Germany returns 18 Aborigine skulls home — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-14-2008 04:33 PM

| A German medical museum will return the skulls of 18 Australian | Aborigines that were taken from the continent more than a century ago.

Iraq: Can ancient Babylon be rescued? — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-11-2008 07:56 PM

Iraq: Can ancient Babylon be rescued? Now, for the first time, global institutions led by the U.N. are thoroughly documenting the damage and how to fix it. A UNESCO report due out early next year will cite Saddam's construction but focus, at the Iraqi government's request, on damage done by U.S. forces from April to September 2003, and the Polish troops deployed there for more than a year afterward. The U.S., which turned Babylon into a military base, says the looting would have been worse but for the troops' presence. The U.S. also says it will help rehabilitate Babylon, funding an effort by the World Monuments Fund and Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, but has yet to release precise funding figures.

Odyssey Marine Exploration Announces Third Quarter 2008 Results — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-11-2008 12:13 PM

OMEX 3.82, +0.13, +3.5%) , the world leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, today filed a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing results of the Company's third quarter 2008.

Peru hints at suit — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-10-2008 08:16 PM

Yale and Peru edged closer to court over the weekend, as officials in the Peruvian government approved in principle the filing of a lawsuit against the University with the hopes of reclaiming Incan artifacts housed at Yale.

Loot! Chicago at center of battle between archeologists, collectors — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-09-2008 04:19 PM

A 4,000-year-old artifact turns up at O'Hare. Stolen property or museum piece?

DOES COLLABORATION BETWEEN NIGERIAN AND EUROPEAN /AMERICAN MUSEUMS BRING US CLOSER TO RESTITUTION OF NIGERIA'S STOLEN/LOOTED ARTS? — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-08-2008 06:04 PM

As readers may know, many Africans are very suspicious of collaboration with museums and institutions that have shown by their history and practice that they do not care much for the interest and feelings of Nigerians and Africans generally. In the article below by Tajudeen Sowole, a Nigerian art critic raises several issues concerning the cooperation between Nigerian museums and institutions with European/American museums. In particular, he wonders whether the collaboration between the Nigerian institutions and American/European museums in the recent exhibition Benin: Kings and Rituals-Court Arts from Nigeria has brought us closer to the restitution of the Benin artifacts or whether these objects will remain in Europe under the pretext that they are part of the universal heritage of mankind.

An antiquities legend in an 'intrinsically lawless' business — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-08-2008 06:00 PM

Leonardo Patterson's colorful career includes charges of smuggling and selling forgeries. This year Munich police seized more than 1,000 Aztec, Maya, Olmec and Inca artifacts from him. The Associated Press

Shame & scandal — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-08-2008 09:50 AM

In 1926, the Mexican government charged the US Consul to the Yucatan, Edward H. Thompson, with theft of artifacts from the ruins of the ancient city of Chichen Itza. The

Art of the Steal — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-08-2008 09:47 AM

Loot is an ugly word. Derived from ­Hindi and Sanskrit, it emerged in British India, where it no doubt proved useful in describing some of the more sordid transactions of empire. In the 20th century, it was applied to Jewish art collections systematically plundered by Hitler and, later, to electronics pilfered from shop windows during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Most recently — and perhaps most provocatively — it has been wielded against well-to-do American museums whose pristine specimens of ancient civilizations have with shocking frequency turned out to be contraband.

Odyssey finds two shipwrecks off coast of Ireland — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-07-2008 05:36 PM

Odyssey Marine Exploration has found two more shipwrecks in the Atlantic.

Egypt retrieves smuggled antiquities from Spain — by Gary Nurkin — last modified 11-06-2008 07:22 PM

CAIRO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has identified three pieces of smuggled antiquity and will get them back form a museum in Spain, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawwas said Thursday.