Israel Accuses U.S. Man of Antiquities Trafficking

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Judge Waddoups says looting and disrespectful treatment of archaeological sites, including 'injun' burial sites is OK in Utah, so it need not surprise us that when some Utahans go abroad, they see nothing wrong with supporting destructive local looting and grave robbing. The Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday that they had arrested a U.S. tour guide, 'educator' and author from Utah on suspicion of trafficking antiquities stolen from Israel and attempting to smuggle antiques valued at tens of thousands of dollars out of the country. John Lund, is accused of selling stolen artifacts to tour groups he led in Israel, and was detained on Monday night at Israel’s international airport as he was trying to leave the country as a result of a joint Israeli Antiquities Authority and customs operation.

The antiquities authority said in a statement that he had stolen ancient coins in his possession and checks totaling more than $20,000 believed to be from the illegal sales of ancient coins, clay oil lamps, and glass and pottery vessels. Lund was allowed to leave after posting a $7,500 bond meant to guarantee he will return to stand trial, said Shai Bar Tura, deputy director of the authority’s theft prevention unit. Bar Tura said formal charges are expected.

The joint operation began two weeks ago when the Antiquities Authority theft prevention unit inspectors discovered that Lund had been selling ancient artefacts at a lecture he had given in a Jerusalem hotel to tour groups visiting Israel from the US. He was detained, the artefacts were seized, and the authorities searched Lund and his hotel room, where they apparently found and seized hundreds of artefacts which it was suspected had been dug up and stolen from various archaeological sites throughout the country by thieves. At the time it was thought appropriate to let Lund off with a warning. Sadly it seems he acquired a new stock of goods and carried on doing what he had been told not to. Trading antiquities without a licence is illegal in Israel.

As a result of surveillance of a tour group he was leading recently, officials at the Israeli border with Egypt at the Taba crossing in Eilat halted the tourists at the crossing and examined the bags of members and discovered 50 stolen items - alerting them to the fact they were suspected for involvement in illegal trade and export. Among the artefacts found in the tourists' suitcases were ancient silver and bronze coins from the Second Temple period (2,000 years old), ceramic lamps from the Roman and Byzantine period and various glass and ceramic utensils. The tourists said that Lund had sold the items to them. An arrest warrant was issued and Lund was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport where he was trying to leave Israel. When his bags were opened, in his possession officials reportedly found ancient coins and 70 cheques written to him by tourists (70 cheques for $20 000 - that is $260 average each customer). According to a statement by the Authority Lund admitted the offences attributed to him Lund could face up to three years in jail if convicted. He was released and allowed to fly back to the USA on bail of $7500. He is scheduled to be leading more "Funforless" tours in the near future.

The head of the theft prevention unit at the Antiquities Authority Amir Ganor said at the conclusion of the operation that "those who purchase artifacts from unauthorized sources at exorbitant prices are endangering themselves, their money and encouraging artifact theft and robbing the country of its history.

.The source of the coins with description cards should be traceable, the "widow's mite" (I assume it is, they do Pontius Pilat prutahs too) in an olive wood case is a well-known antiqui-geegaw, sold in huge quantities to the gullible collector or believer on the Internet, the source and packaging seems to be Israeli (Moriah, North of Ayalon, Israel 99785)


Dr. Lund [...] is described as having a unique combination of gospel knowledge, deep spirituality, and has a delightful sense of humor. I guess 'thou shalt not deal in stolen goods' simply is not in the book of Mormon. Are we taking bets on whether he goes back to Israel to face the consequences or decides to forfeit the seven and a half thousand from the profits he has made from selling this stuff? Or will he go back and defend himself by showing that its "OK" because the objects were looted outside Israel and he has the receipts to prove it? So how many looted and illegally sold artefacts have entered the US over the years with tourists that went on a tour with Dr Lund? Let us note there were seventy cheques in his bag, but only 50 artefacts recovered this time (not all of the group left Israel through Eilat), and what about previous trips?

Jerusalem - Israel Accuses U.S. Man of Antiquities Trafficking AP - 18th May 2011.
(getting a lot of coverage, "Israel accuses US man of antiquities trafficking" 5700 hits for this article title alone).

Zvi Lavi, 'US professor suspected of selling stolen artifacts', Israel News, 18.05.11

Photo, display by Eilat customs of coins lamps and pots found in Lund's possession.

Peru Gets Stolen Antiquities Back from US

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Peru has a 1997 cultural property MOU with the US referring to pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts and colonial ethnological materials from all areas of Peru. On that basis it got back from the US a mixed load of seized cultural goodies on May 12th. The artefacts were discovered as part of three separate investigations by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York and Denver. There was a book found in the bagage of a passenger to Houston who was on an ICE stop-list, but also some archaeological material from other seizures, including a pot with a feline on one side and standing feline, A.D. 300-360, handmade textile and two headbands all of cotton, most likely excavated from graves along the Pacific coast of Peru, and a stone jaguar-human sculpture, 1200-1500 years old, likely Chavín or Moche in origin. The artefacts repatriated are valued at more than $43,000. Not bad for a group of old pots and rags, which shows clearly how the value placed on them by collectors is the motor for digging them up and smuggling them out of the country.

Apparently "this is the second repatriation of items to Peru. In April 2010, ICE and CBP returned 12 pre-Columbian human skulls, circa A.D. 640-890". That's collectors of "ancient art" for you, I suppose if they pay grave robbers to give them textiles taken from tombs to display as trophies in living room showcases, there's not much human decency left to stop them from buying human remains from them too to decorate the bathroom.

The usual speeches were delivered.

The press release goes on to say:

ICE HSI plays a leading role in investigating crimes involving the illicit importation and distribution of cultural property. ICE HSI uses its investigative authority to seize cultural property items if they were illegally imported into the United States. It also investigates the illegal trafficking of artwork, especially works that have been reported lost or stolen. ICE's Office of International Affairs, through its 69 attaché offices in 47 countries, works closely with foreign governments to conduct joint investigations, when possible.

ICE's specially trained investigators and foreign attachés partner with governments, agencies and experts to protect cultural antiquities as well as train investigators from other nations and agencies on how to find and authenticate cultural property, and how to best enforce the law to recover these items when they emerge in the marketplace.

More than 2,400 artifacts have been returned to 19 countries since 2007 including paintings from France, Germany and Austria; an 18th century manuscript from Italy; and a bookmark belonging to Hitler as well as cultural artifacts from Iraq including Babylonian, Sumerian and neo-Assyrian items.[...]

CBP is the nation's lead border security agency and is charged with enforcing hundreds of laws at and between our nation's 327 international ports of entry. As part of that mission, CBP enforces bi-lateral agreements and import restrictions on certain foreign cultural property and archaeological materials. CBP works closely with ICE and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to prevent the illegal trade and trafficking of cultural antiquities. CBP partners with ICE to ensure that illegally traded and trafficked antiquities are returned to their rightful owners.

These hundreds of laws include the ones the ACCG, PNG and IAPN are trying to have overturned to allow the free importation into the United States of illegally exported items from countries with cultural property MOUs with the US.

Vignette: Smuggled Jaguar thingy repatriated.

Le trafic des biens culturels dans le monde s'intensifie

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Tunisia, Egypt, Libya… The traffickers of stolen cultural goods dream of countries like this where instability reigns, but it is not only they that fall victim to this trade. In the era of the Internet, this illicit commerce, estimated by some to be worth as much as 6 billion dollars is accelerating. UNESCO raises the alarm (Martine Robert, 'Le trafic des biens culturels dans le monde s'intensifie', Les Echoes, 15th march 2011).

Il n'y a pas que le marché de l'art qui est prospère. Le trafic des biens culturels se porte bien, lui aussi. Selon Interpol, il représente annuellement 6 milliards de dollars. «La situation est alarmante, particulièrement dans les pays en proie à l'instabilité comme la Tunisie, la Lybie, et surtout l'Egypte», a déclaré, hier, Irina Bokova, directeur général de l'Unesco, à l'occasion du colloque que l'organisation internationale tient jusqu'à ce soir à Paris, dans le cadre du quarantième anniversaire de la convention, signée par 120 Etats, visant à lutter contre ce phénomène. Il s'agit, avec l'aide de l'Organisation mondiale des douanes, d'Interpol, de maisons de ventes aux enchères ou de musées, de tenter d'apporter de nouvelles réponses. Car, ces dernières années, Internet a accéléré le trafic, la Toile étant devenue le support d'un commerce très lucratif dans le trafic des biens culturels.

La convention adoptée il y a quarante ans établit les mesures à prendre pour interdire et empêcher l'importation, l'exportation et le transfert de propriété illicites des biens culturels. Elle évoque aussi la question des restitutions et offre un cadre de coopération international pour mieux combattre le trafic. Mais il revient à chaque pays de mettre en oeuvre la législation permettant de l'appliquer. De plus, cette convention traite surtout des relations entre Etats: elle a dû être complétée en 1995 par la convention Unidroit, plus stricte, qui implique également les acteurs privés. Malheureusement, celle-ci n'a été ratifiée quasiment par aucun des pays où les marchés de l'art sont les plus actifs.

Like the USA for example, which applies the 1970 UNESCO Convention in a highly selective manner (to a degree that one might legitimately ask whether they have actually implemented it at all). The application of the sort of measures envisaged by the UNIDROIT document is vehemently opposed by US dealers in dugup antiquities (such as in their Unidroit-L discussion list which is a mouthpiece for the naysayers). One might wonder why a supposedly legitimate business is concerned with measures intending to prevent the commerce in illicitly-obtained items. The answer to that question might tell the objective observer a lot about the current state of the antiquities market, might it not?

Existing measures are not as effective at stopping the haemorrhage of illicitly obtained artefacts onto the international market in its current form:

Plusieurs pays africains ont ainsi perdu plus de la moitié de leur patrimoine, aujourd'hui dispersé. Des centaines de statues du temple d'Angkor, au Cambodge, ont été arrachées. En Amérique centrale, les fouilles illégales se traduisent chaque mois par l'extraction d'au moins 1.000 pièces de céramique maya, d'une valeur de 10 millions de dollars. Et en Irak, 15.000 pièces du musée national de Bagdad ont été dérobées lors du dernier conflit, plus de la moitié étant toujours manquantes.

The question is are we just going to continue to shrug our shoulders and say with the British archaeological establishment that "looting is here to stay, if we can't beat them, let's make them our partners"? Is this something we can wait until somebody else does the work for the archaeological establishment (volunteer grassroots organizations like SAFE over in the US, and Heritage Action in the UK, or HAPAH in France)? Or are we going to try and alert public opinion to the problem and its scale and significance and try to curb this kind of erosive and destructive commercial exploitation of the archaeological record by making dealers and collectors socially accountable?

What part should Britain's PAS play in all this? What part can they play in all this while considering artefact hunters and collectors their "partners"? They rather have allowed themselves to a situation where they have their hands tied, haven't they? Listen, you can hear the pigeons cooing from the roof and gables of the British Museum. The Portable Antiquities Scheme is silent on this matter too. It is annoying that its the Bloomsbury pigeons which are making a more audible public comment on certain portable antiquity issues than the multi-million pound organization set up at public expense to deal with portable antiquity issues.

Is "coo coo" the best argument the British archaeological establishment can muster these days?

Vignette: Bloomsbury Pete (national representative of the NGO, the Avian Concern for Cultural Heritage, British Museum, Bloomsbury WC1), currently Britain's most vociferous spokesman on portable antiquity issues.

'How To' Guide to US Law on Dealing with Suspected Trafficked Egyptian Cultural Objects

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Cultural heritage lawyer Ricardo St. Hilaire has a post on his blog on 'Reclaiming Trafficked Egyptian Cultural Objects: US Seizure Laws and How to Make a Report to Customs and Border Protection' well worth a read, as it provides an insight into how US laws can be used in parallel to the US CCPIA to protect the global cultural heritage. Note though that the old cultural patrimony law 117 of 1983 was amended by Law N.3 of 2010 promulgating the Antiquities Protection Law, though presumably this does not affect what St Hilaire calls the "Schultz doctrine". I really still do not understand how the ARPA applies, but it has been used in the past and they got away with it. Odd.

This is a very useful text, not least in that it can form a basis for discussions on how the system can be made more watertight in the case of freshly excavated archaeological material.