The Odd Couple of Antiquities & Art Theft

IN THE RAREFIED WORLD OF ANTIQUITIES SALES, PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES….

SOUNDUP:

“sold at 600,000 dallars…”

SOUNDBITE:

“As a dealer, we are all prostitutes. You have streetwalkers and high class hookers. But basically, we are selling our trade.”

SUPER CAPTION: Michel van Rijn, Art Theft Consultant

MICHEL VAN RIJN SHOULD KNOW. BY HIS OWN ADMISSION, HE’S HAD A VERY COLORFUL PAST

SOUNDBITE:

“I smuggled from Libya. I stole at the time from Kaddafi.”

SMUGGLING IS A VERY LUCRATIVE BUSINESS FOR THOSE WHO DO IT WELL. RICHARD ELLIS IS THE FORMER HEAD OF SCOTLAND YARD’S ART AND ANTIQUITIES SQUAD.

SOUNDBITE:

“It's estimated somewhere between three and six billion pounds a year is what is represented in stolen art, antiques and cultural property.”

SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant

AND WHEN VAN RIJN WENT STRAIGHT, HE LOOKED ELLIS UP

SOUNDBITE: Michel van Rijn

“We met because he was chasing me for ten years all over the world. So one day, I was in the Dorchester Hotel…and I called him, we had never spoken. And I said, well, you’re very welcome for a drink, you know. Handcuffs are optional. What do you think? He said, well, that might be difficult if we have a drink together. So let’s ... so we met in the bar.”

AND SO THEY STARTED COLLABORATING . TODAY, MICHEL VAN RIJN WORKS TO EXPOSE THE ART WORLD’S DIRTY DEEDS. RECENTLY HE TEAMED UP WITH SCOTLAND YARD ON THE RECOVERY OF A PRICELESS MAYA HEADRESS. BUT DESPITE THE HIGH PROFILE RECOVERIES, THERE IS MUCH THAT SLIPS THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL BORDERS UNDETECTED.

SOUNDBITE:

“You'll find whole container loads of antiquities…the hazards should we say of trafficking in antiquities are pretty low.”

SOUNDBITE:

“You know, things which are stolen are found fresh in the ground in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, Afghanistan. Nowadays, they are shipped via Dubai where they get the different passport. I mean, they say a respectable Dubai firm who will re-export the art work to London, to Paris, et cetera. So there are no questions…

Once in transit, antiquities can be sold anywhere, but Ellis says the primary destinations are New York and London.

But moving stolen artifacts is only part of the operation. To get top dollar, the object needs to be given an aura of legitimacy. It has to be laundered. one way is to create fake paper trails documenting its history, or provenance.

SOUNDBITE: Richard Ellis

“Provenance of an object is literally its history, who made it, when it was made, where it was made, who owned it…”

ANOTHER WAY IS TO MISUSE LEGITIMATE TOOLS. THE ART LOSS REGISTER IS A DATABASE OF KNOWN STOLEN ART. HOWEVER, IF THE SMUGGLER IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS THE OBJECT EVEN EXISTS, THE DATABASE CAN HELP COVER HIS TRACKS.

SOUNDBITE:

“The gallery owner //he can send a photograph of the object to the Art Loss Register. And he will get a letter back saying it doesn’t match our archives. Meaning you have done your due diligence. From that moment on, you can turn around as a dealer, knowing you have a stolen object. You have laundered it and you can sell it to any museum in the world, or any collector, or via any auction in the world.”

furthermore, WHILE SOME COLLECTORS BELIEVE THAT THEIR PURCHASES ARE SAVING eNDANGERED ANTIQUITIES, FREQUENTLY THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. These pictures are taken from one of Richard Ellis’ investigations in Egypt AT THE TOMB OF HATEPKA. THE once luminous hieroglyphs WERE SOLD ON THE FOREIGN MARKET. The Tomb walls have been stripped to bare stone.

SOUNDBITE:

“The value of the object placed on it by the marketplace can be vastly different to that placed on it by the archeologist and science. And when an object is illegally excavated, it loses its context.”

The cards may be stacked against the authorities, but justice can prevail. In 2006, Italian authorities were able to claim a set of Hellenistic VESSELS that had been looted decades earlier. On display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum since 1972, the museum has agreed to return the artifacts to Italy after investigations into the dealings of a convicted trafficker suggested a faked provenance for the set.

Examples like this give hope that something can be done to stem the trade, however, it may only be a drop in the bucket.

SOUNDBITE: Richard Ellis

“There isn't a country in the world that doesn't suffer from cultural property theft. Not one.”