National Gallery Of Australia to Give Up Shiva

India requesting quick return of the looted Dancing Shiva
By Derek Fincham on  March 29, 2014 — illicitculturalproperty.com

The 900-year-old dancing Shiva statue was removed from display
The case of the looted Dancing Shiva statue has evolved very quickly. Andrew Sayers, the director of the National Gallery of Australia has resigned. And now the Indian government wants the looted material returned:
The Indian government formally requested the return of a 900-year-old Dancing Shiva statue from the National Gallery of Australia and a stone sculpture of the god Ardhanarishvara from the Art Gallery of NSW last week.
The Attorney-General’s Department issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the Art Gallery of NSW had “voluntarily removed” its sculpture from public display – one day after it was announced the National Gallery would remove its allegedly looted statue from exhibition.
Both artefacts were bought from antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor, who is on trial in India for looting and wanted in the United States for allegedly masterminding a large-scale antiquities smuggling operation.
A first secretary of India’s High Commission, Tarun Kumar, said it was “our expectation” both statues would be returned to India. “We expect a decision in that regard will be taken within the next month,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s Department said on Wednesday that there was no time limit in the legislation for responding to the Indian government’s request.
The Canberra-based National Gallery paid $US5 million for the Dancing Shiva statue in February 2008. The statue was one of 22 items it bought from Mr Kapoor’s Art of the Past gallery for a total of $11 million between 2002 and 2011.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/india-wants-looting-scandal-statues-including-dancing-shiva-returned-in-30-days-20140327-35lhn.html#ixzz2xHHhXu4p
New York Lawsuit shows due diligence pays, as much as $5m
By Derek Fincham on February 12, 2014 — 3 Comments
The Shiva bronze statue which the National Gallery of Australia purchased in 2008 for $5 million
A lawsuit filed in New York State court last week could provide one of the strongest disincentives yet to dealing in looted cultural objects. Subhash Kapoor‘s gallery in New York, Art of the Past, has been sued for a laundry list of private law violations; including “fraud, rescission, unjust enrichment, contractual indemnity, and breach of contract” based on the sale of this bronze statue known as Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja). The plaintiff is the Australian gallery which purchased this work in 2008.
This lawsuit is exactly what should happen when a purchaser with clean hands purchases a work of art from a dealer who knew that a work of art was looted or stolen. I’ve argued before that acquisitions like this defraud the legitimate trade in works of art, and also corrupt our understanding of history.
Chasing Aphrodite asks:
The NGA lawsuit, to our knowledge, is unprecedented. American museums and private collectors have returned hundreds of looted objects to Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Cambodia and other countries in recent years. In nearly all those cases, dealers had provided standard warranties guaranteeing good title to the objects. And yet not one museum or collector had filed a similar lawsuit…that we know of.

So why haven’t lawsuits like this occurred with more regularity? Here’s why I think they have been rare. They should be happening every time looted art is repatriated.  As any first year law student learns, if someone sells you stolen property, every legal system allows you to bring an action against the launderer of stolen property. But this has not happened in the antiquities trade for a couple reasons. First, many curators and museum officials had too much knowledge of the illicitness of objects they were acquiring. A lawsuit like this would have embarrassed institutions like the Getty or the Met or the MFA in Boston by raising uncomfortable question about what due diligence was taken before an acquisition. In this case, it seems as if the National Gallery of Australia is comfortable in defending its due diligence procedures to a court. The NGA alleges in its complaint that it undertook due diligence procedures, while also relying on the warranties given by Art of the Past. But the NGA asked the Art loss register if the statue was stolen, examined letters from the previous owner of the statue, consulted the ‘Tamil Nadu Police website’, checked the records produced by the Archaeological Survey of India, and finally consulted with a bronze expert in India who supported the acquisition.
Perhaps another reason that a suit like this is unique, is the secret nature of the art trade itself. Buyers and sellers are anonymous. But that is changing. When you can trace the path of material through the various purchasers, the market for illicit material shrinks. And that is a very good thing, and why we should all watch this suit in New York closely.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA v. ART OF THE PAST INC, Docket No. 650395/2014 (N.Y. Sup Ct. Feb. 06, 2014)

http://illicitculturalproperty.com/new-york-lawsuit-shows-due-diligence-pays-as-much-as-5m/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IllicitCulturalProperty+%28Illicit+Cultural+Property%29

Archaeology Around the World - Spring 2014

1.CAIRO (AFP).- Egypt said Wednesday archaeologists have unearthed a 5,600-year-old preserved tomb and mummy predating the pharaonic First Dynasty, a discovery that will shed new light on the pre-dynastic era. The tomb was built before the rule of king Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty who unified Upper and Lower Egypt in the 31th century BC, the antiquities ministry said in a statement. The tomb was discovered in the Kom al-Ahmar region, between Luxor and Aswan, on the site of ancient Hierakonpolis, the city of the falcon, which was the capital of the Kingdom of Upper Egypt. The archaeologists found an ivory statue of a bearded man and the mummy of the tomb's owner, who appeared to have died in his late teenage years, the ministry said. They also found 10 ivory combs as well as tools, ... More

2.BINANGONAN (AFP.- On a small rock wall a short drive from the Philippine capital, enigmatic carvings that are believed to date back 5,000 years are in danger of disappearing before their mysteries can be solved. The 127 engravings of people, animals and geometric shapes are the Southeast Asian nation's oldest known artworks, but encroaching urbanisation, vandals and the ravages of nature are growing threats. "Eventually they will disappear... preservation is out of the question," veteran anthropologist Jesus Peralta, who did an extensive and widely respected study of the carvings in the 1970s, told AFP. The artworks have been declared a national treasure, regarded as the best proof that relatively sophisticated societies existed in the Philippines in the Stone Age. "They show that in ancient times, the Philippines did have a complex culture. It's a recording of our
ancestors," said Leo ... More

WASHINGTON, DC.- Until Sept. 14, 2014, the National Geographic Museum will be home to a remarkable collection of ancient gold and silver artifacts excavated from Peru’s legendary royal tombs. “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed” showcases extraordinary objects from Peru’s pre-Inca heritage, including gold ceremonial and funerary masks, textiles, ceremonial ornaments, ceramics and jewelry. The centerpiece of the exhibition is El Tocado, the largest and most ornate pre-Columbian headdress ever discovered. The extraordinary gold headdress dates from the Middle Sican period (A.D. 900-1100). This is the first time it will be on display in the United States since it was unearthed in 1991.

Guest curated by National Geographic’s Archaeology Fellow Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, “Peruvian Gold” features iconic artifacts on loan from three Peruvian institutions: Sican National Museum, Larco Museum and Museum of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. The exhibition continues National Geographic’s longstanding relationship with Peru, which began with National Geographic magazine’s coverage of Hiram Bingham’s excavation of Machu Picchu in 1911. The National Geographic Society has funded more than 180 grants related to exploratory field research in Peru since 1912, including 14 linked to excavations of royal tombs.

“National Geographic has been sharing the stories and the archaeology of ancient Peru for more than 100 years,” said Kathryn Keane, vice president of National Geographic Exhibitions. “This exhibition is an opportunity to walk into the pages of National Geographic magazine and see unique treasures from Peru’s golden past.” 

In addition to providing visitors with the opportunity to get up close and personal with stunning examples of ancient craftsmanship, the exhibit also explains how the artifacts reflect the customs, beliefs and ideals of the cultures that produced and utilized them. A map and timeline of Peru’s earliest civilizations serve as the starting point for museum visitors. The exhibition continues with the iconography, craftsmanship and ceremonial heritage of these complex societies.

The “Peruvian Gold” artifacts are organized thematically, with the first group emphasizing the importance of symbolism in Peruvian culture through intricate animal masks and impressive breastplates worn by dignitaries and priests. The exhibit goes on to highlight objects that illustrate ancient Peruvian craftsmanship, attire, rituals and even libations. From nose rings to gold feathers, the diverse selection of artifacts offers a sweeping view of the rich artistic culture of early Peru.

This exhibition is organized in partnership with the Irving Arts Center, Irving, Texas; the Peruvian Ministry of Culture; and the Embassy of Peru.

“Peru has a long history of cooperation and partnership with the National Geographic Society, which dates back to the early years of the institution,” said Harold Forsyth, Ambassador of Peru to the United States. “National Geographic has been involved in many of the most important Peruvian archaeological findings to date and has always been a dependable partner, managing to properly portray the image of Peru beyond its borders. We are thrilled that, through this exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to cross a cultural bridge and understand why Peruvian culture still dazzles the world to this day.” National geographic

Note: The Irving Heritage Society held its latest meeting at the Irving Arts Center to announce a special exhibit that’s coming. The society invited Arts Center Executive Director Richard Huff to share news about “Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed.” The exhibit of about 100 gold treasures dating from 1250 BC to 1450 AD will run from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Irving is one of only two venues in the nation for the exhibit. The other location is Washington, D.C., where admission prices will be much higher.
Huff presented a slideshow with more details and photos of some of the pieces. Organized by the National Geographic Society, the exhibit will provide a glimpse of ancient, complex civilizations where wealth and power flourished. Gold wasn’t valued as a commodity by Peruvians but instead was a symbol of status, power and eternity.
The collection, valued at from $3.5 to $5 million, will have 24-hour armed security.
Huff also said the center already has enough funds to cover the exhibit’s $1.4 million cost. He added admission will be minimal, “not more than it would cost a family of four to go to the movies.”
Also at the meeting, a dedicated member of the Heritage Society was recognized. Mary Higbie received a Community Builder Award from Irving Masonic Lodge No. 1218. The award honors local leaders who give of their time while following the ideals of the Masons. One of the Masons talked about Higbie’s background (she was a champion barrel racer in Iowa) and her long list of community service. Higbie accepted with gratitude, saying she always gets back more than she gives.


NEW YORK, NY.- On April 9, Doyle New York auctioned a rare and important Nebuchadnezzar II Babylonian cuneiform cylinder that set a world auction record for a Babylonian cylinder. The price of $605,000 achieved by Doyle New York far surpassed the prior record of £264,000 (approx. $440,000) set in London in 2011. The cylinder sold to a bidder participating on the telephone.

The clay cylinder describes the rebuilding of the temple of Shamash in Sippar (modern Tell Abu Habbah in Iraq) by Nebuchadnezzar II and dates to the Neo-Babylonian Period, circa 604-562 BC. At 8 1/4 inches (20.8 cm) in length, it is the largest example to come to market in recent times and was estimated at $300,000-500,000. In 1953, it was sold through Dawson’s of Los Angeles.

Nebuchadnezzar II was responsible for the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon in 587 BC. All of the ritual objects contained in the Temple, including the fabled Ark of the Covenant, were lost, and the Jewish population was carried away into captivity in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II is featured in the Bible’s Book of Daniel, and Psalm 137 laments the Babylonian Captivity.

In Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II built the monumental Ishtar Gate, now reconstructed in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, and the legendary Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

It was customary for the kings of Babylon to publicly cement their relationship with the gods by restoring their temples. These accomplishments were recorded in cuneiform writing on clay cylinders, which were buried in the foundations of the restored temples. These cylinders were enduring commemorations of the king's fealty to the gods, and they enhanced the appearance of legitimacy for the ruler with his subjects.

The most famous of these clay cylinders is the Cyrus Cylinder, named for the Persian King Cyrus the Great, who conquered Babylon in 540 BC and subsequently released the Jews from captivity. The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in Babylon in 1879 and is now in the collection of the British Museum in London.  http://artdaily.com/

German donates possible Holocost art treasures to Bern

In a provocatively-titled op-ed in the conversation, Tess Davis and Marc Masurovsky argue that a proposed bill would make American art museums a haven for stolen art by allowing them to “knowingly exhibit stolen art”. Their argument:

GENEVA (AFP).- A Swiss museum that unexpectedly inherited a disputed hoard of priceless paintings, some likely plundered from Jews during World War II, plans to send a team to Germany to inspect the treasure. Matthias Frehner, head of the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, told the Berner Zeitung daily Thursday that the museum "first and foremost needs to go to Germany to get an impression of what the inheritance represents." His comment was published a day after the museum learned that it was the sole heir of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer, who died on Tuesday at the age of 81, following heart surgery. With the grant, the museum would become the owner of a spectacular trove of 1,280 artworks, including long-lost masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, that Gurlitt had hidden in his flat in the southern German city of Munich for decades. More than 200 other paintings, sketches ... More
In a provocatively-titled op-ed in the conversation, Tess Davis and Marc Masurovsky argue that a proposed bill would make American art museums a haven for stolen art by allowing them to “knowingly exhibit stolen art”. Their argument:
On March 25, backed by the art trade lobby, Republican Congressman Steve Chabot reintroduced the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act to the House of Representatives. On its face, HR 4292 asks Congress to “clarify” a small section of the the law. But in truth, the bill goes far beyond mere clarification.
It would instead undo established US law and policy by allowing American cultural institutions to block legal claims to artwork on loan from abroad. Museums would knowingly be able to exhibit stolen and looted art and antiquities. It would leave the rightful owners without any legal recourse to recover their property in US courts.
This bill is just the latest attempt by the less responsible players in the art market to weaken US law. American legal principles have long held that a thief cannot transfer good title. The receipt, possession, and transport of stolen property is a crime. US legislation has carved out a narrow exception to prevent the judicial seizure of art imported for exhibition, but only in very limited circumstances, which it clearly enumerates. HR 4292 would greatly expand this exception by divesting our courts of all jurisdiction over such objects.
Those are strong statements. And it must be said that the text of the proposed bill, at least by my reading, seems to do just the opposite. It makes it easier for Nazi-era claimants to pursue claims against possessors who send their art on temporary exhibition to the U.S.

It clarifies the concept of “commercial activity”; something needed after a 2005 case, Malewicz v
. City of Amsterdam, which saw heirs of Malevich bringing suit against Amsterdam in federal court in Washington D.C.
Since 1965 the Exemption from Judicial Seizure of Cultural Objects Imported for Temporary Exhibition act grants immunity for temporary exhibitions for material being brought into the U.S. if the loan is in the national interest, and the objects are of cultural significance. Rick St. Hilaire and others have supported this clarification. And on its face the clarification seems necessary. Perhaps what Masurovsky and Davis really want is an end to all art immunizations—but they don’t really come out and say that. Instead they accuse Americn Museums of knowingly exhibiting and gathering stolen art. Though there are certainly examples of this on the extreme margins, the examples that the authors use both cut against their underlying position. The Portrait of Wally litigation never involved Federal immunity, only New York State immunity. And the Koh Ker material was not loaned to the United States, it was acquired or up for auction, and the Federal Prosecutors initiated forfeiture actions.
I am not a provenance researcher, and I am not familiar with how in-depth the State Department grants of immunity checks are, but it seems to me the authors have exaggerated their position. Perhaps I’m missing something, but I don’t see any example of any museum in North America being able to knowingly exhibit stolen material.

The background:

1. GENEVA (AFP).- A Swiss museum that unexpectedly inherited a disputed hoard of priceless paintings, some likely plundered from Jews during World War II, plans to send a team to Germany to inspect the treasure. Matthias Frehner, head of the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, told the Berner Zeitung daily Thursday that the museum "first and foremost needs to go to Germany to get an impression of what the inheritance represents." His comment was published a day after the museum learned that it was the sole heir of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer, who died on

Tuesday at the age of 81, following heart surgery. With the grant, the museum would become the owner of a spectacular trove of 1,280 artworks, including long-lost masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, that Gurlitt had hidden in his flat in the southern German city of Munich for decades. More than 200 other paintings, sketches ...More..http://artdaily.com/news/69970/Bern-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-to-inspect-inherited-Nazi-era-art-hoard-owned-by-Cornelius-Gurlitt#.U3kbIOYXgtE

2. VANITY FAIR -
The Devil and the Art Dealer By Alex Shoumatoff

It was the greatest art theft in history: 650,000 works looted from Europe by the Nazis, many of which were never recovered. But last November the world learned that German authorities had found a trove of 1,280 paintings, drawings, and prints worth more than a billion dollars in the Munich apartment of a haunted white-haired recluse. Amid an international uproar, Alex Shoumatoff follows a century-old trail to reveal the crimes—and obsessions—involved.

At about nine P.M. on September 22, 2010, the high-speed train from Zurich to Munich passed the Lindau border, and Bavarian customs officers came aboard for a routine check of passengers. A lot of “black” money—off-the-books cash—is taken back and forth at this crossing by Germans with Swiss bank accounts, and officers are trained to be on the lookout for suspicious travelers.

As reported by the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, while making his way down the aisle, one of the officers came upon a frail, well-dressed, white-haired man traveling alone and asked for his papers. The old man produced an Austrian passport that said he was Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt, born in Hamburg in 1932. He reportedly told the officer that the purpose of his trip was for business, at an art gallery in Bern. Gurlitt was behaving so nervously that the officer decided to take him into the bathroom to search him, and he found on his person an envelope containing 9,000 euros ($12,000) in crisp new bills.

Though he had done nothing illegal—amounts under 10,000 euros don’t need to be declared—the old man’s behavior and the money aroused the officer’s suspicion. He gave back Gurlitt’s papers and money and let him return to his seat, but the customs officer flagged Cornelius Gurlitt for further investigation, and this would put into motion the explosive dénouement of a tragic mystery more than a hundred years in the making.
A Dark Legacy

Cornelius Gurlitt was a ghost. He had told the officer that he had an apartment in Munich, although his residence—where he pays taxes—was in Salzburg. But, according to newspaper reports, there was little record of his existence in Munich or anywhere in Germany. The customs and tax investigators, following up on the officer’s recommendation, discovered no state pension, no health insurance, no tax or employment records, no bank accounts—Gurlitt had apparently never had a job—and he wasn’t even listed in the Munich phone book. This was truly an invisible man.
And yet with a little more digging they discovered that he had been living in Schwabing, one of Munich’s nicer neighborhoods, in a million-dollar-plus apartment for half a century. Then there was that name. Gurlitt. To those with knowledge of Germany’s art world during Hitler’s reign, and

especially those now in the business of searching for Raubkunst—art looted by the Nazis—the name Gurlitt is significant: Hildebrand Gurlitt was a museum curator who, despite being a second-degree Mischling, a quarter Jewish, according to Nazi law, became one of the Nazis’ approved art dealers. During the Third Reich, he had amassed a large collection of Raubkunst, much of it from Jewish dealers and collectors. The investigators began to wonder: Was there a connection between Hildebrand Gurlitt and Cornelius Gurlitt? Cornelius had mentioned the art gallery on the train. Could he have been living off the quiet sale of artworks?
The investigators became curious as to what was in apartment No. 5 at 1 Artur-Kutscher-Platz. Perhaps they picked up on the rumors in Munich’s art world. “Everyone in the know had heard that Gurlitt had a big collection of looted art,” the husband of a modern-art-gallery owner told me. But they proceeded cautiously. There were strict private-property-rights, invasion-of-privacy, and other legal issues, starting with the fact that Germany has no law preventing an individual or an institution from owning looted art. It took till September 2011, a full year after the incident on the train, for a judge to issue a search warrant for Gurlitt’s apartment, on the grounds of suspected tax evasion and embezzlement. But still, the authorities seemed hesitant to execute it.

Then, three months later, in December 2011, Cornelius sold a painting, a masterpiece by Max Beckmann titled The Lion Tamer, through the Lempertz auction house, in Cologne, for a total of 864,000 euros ($1.17 million). Even more interesting, according to Der Spiegel, the money from the sale was split roughly 60–40 with the heirs of Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, who had had modern-art galleries in several German cities and Vienna in the 1920s. In 1933, Flechtheim had fled to Paris and then London, leaving behind his collection of art. He died impoverished in 1937. His family has been trying to reclaim the collection, including The Lion Tamer, for years.
As part of his settlement with the Flechtheim estate, according to an attorney for the heirs, Cornelius Gurlitt acknowledged that the Beckmann had been sold under duress by Flechtheim in 1934 to his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt. This bombshell gave traction to the government’s suspicion that there might be more art in Gurlitt’s apartment.

But it took until February 28, 2012, for the warrant to finally be executed. When the police and customs and tax officials entered Gurlitt’s 1,076-square-foot apartment, they found an astonishing trove of 121 framed and 1,285 unframed artworks, including pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Chagall, Max Liebermann, Otto Dix, Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Kirchner, Delacroix, Daumier, and Courbet. There was a Dürer. A Canaletto. The collection could be worth

more than a billion dollars.

As reported in Der Spiegel, over a period of three days, Gurlitt was instructed to sit and watch quietly as officials packed the pictures and took them all away. The trove was taken to a federal customs warehouse in Garching, about 10 miles north of Munich. The chief prosecutor’s office made no public announcement of the seizure and kept the whole matter under tight wraps while it debated how to proceed. Once the artworks’ existence became known, all hell was going to break loose. Germany would be besieged by claims and diplomatic pressure. In this unprecedented case, no one seemed to know what to do. It would open old wounds, fault lines in the culture, that hadn’t healed and never will.

In the days that followed, Cornelius sat bereft in his empty apartment. A psychological counselor from a government agency was sent to check up on him. Meanwhile, the collection remained in Garching, with no one the wiser, until word of its existence was leaked to Focus, a German newsweekly, possibly by someone who had been in Cornelius’s apartment, perhaps one of the police or the movers who were there in 2012, because he or she provided a description of its interior. On November 4, 2013—20 months after the seizure and more than three years after Cornelius’s interview on the train—the magazine splashed on its front page the news that what appeared to be the greatest trove of looted Nazi art in 70 years had been found in the apartment of an urban hermit in Munich who had been living with it for decades.
Soon after the Focus story broke, the media converged on No. 1 Artur-Kutscher-Platz, and Cornelius Gurlitt’s life as a recluse was over.

For the full article subscribe to Vanity Fair - http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/04/degenerate-art-cornelius-gurlitt-munich-apartment

Indiana Collector Raided by FBI

You can see from the media coverage below that the FBI treated this swat-like raid as being important enough to justify a significant commitment of funds and personnel. Bottom line you can be sure the people on the ground have definitive orders to find some thing to contradict the potential backlash and criticism from the public, who are already wondering why they haven't left the 91 year collector alone. Give me a few experts and two days and I guarantee anyone that knows what they are doing could lead a team that could triage this collection and separate the good from the bad and the problems from the who cares. I would also be willing to bet that most of what is in that house is in the latter category. I am speculating but if I am right why would you need to process anything that Miller could legally own. Are there as has been reported hundreds of things that the FBI took away in this category? It has been reported that Miller had human remains in his collection. If so I am sure that's what immediately led the FBI in and is something Miller should have known better having collected as long as he has.  I don't know Don Miller but I would certainly advise him that the Feds are not there to help him. Can you imagine the FBI team leader who has already appeared in early April saying the collection is priceless and cultural important, now saying oops I goofed there really is not much here. I feel sorry for My. Miller. I also feel sorry for the taxpayers that are funding this. 


Thousands Of Artifacts Seized At 91-Year-Old Indiana Man's Home
by
April 03, 201410:20 AM ET
FBI agents work around a home in Rush County to confiscate what the agency is calling artifacts on Wednesday.
Kelly Wilkinson/The Indianapolis Star
Federal agents, art experts and museum curators descended on the home of a 91-year-old man in central Indiana on Wednesday to take control of a huge collection of artifacts from Native American,

Russian, Chinese and other cultures.
FBI Special Agent Robert Jones told reporters that the collection's cultural value "is immeasurable," .
While officials wouldn't offer details about what they found, that thousands of artifacts were seized. The Star adds that "an FBI command vehicle and several tents were spotted at the property in rural Waldron, about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis."
The man who apparently has been collecting artifacts for about eight decades is Don Miller. He has not been arrested or charged, according to news reports. The Star writes that:
 "The items were found in a main residence, in which Miller lives; a second, unoccupied residence on the property; and in several outbuildings, Jones said. The town originally was Iroquois land. The objects were not stored to museum standards, Jones said, but it was apparent Miller had made an effort to maintain them well.
 "The aim of the investigation is to determine what each artifact is, where it came from and how Miller obtained it, Jones said, to determine whether some of the items might be illegal to possess privately."
Larry Zimmerman, a professor of anthropology and museum studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, tells the Star he has "never seen a collection like this in my life except in some of the largest museums."
The local newspaper, , wrote a series of stories about Miller in 2007 in which he talked about his work in 1944 and 1945 with the group that tested detonators during development of the atomic bomb.
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Seriously, The FBI Devoted Massive Resources To Seize A 91-Year Old Man's Private Collection Of Artifacts?
Aerial view of FBI raid on Don Miller's residence (Star Photo/Kelly Wilkinson)
A 91-year old Rush County man's home was the scene of a massive FBI raid where agents seized more than a thousand cultural artifacts Don Miller reportedly collected over the past eight decades according to the Indianapolis Star. Miller has not been charged or arrested for committing any crime. Yet agents will spend months cataloging his cache of artifacts to determine their origins according to Robert Jones, special agent in charge of the Indianapolis office. "The monetary value of the items and relics has not been determined Jones said, but the cultural value is beyond measure. In addition to American Indian objects, the collection includes items from China, Russia, Peru, Haiti, Australia and New Guinea.," he said. We have politicians and their cronies stealing hundreds of millions of our tax dollars in plain sight, and the only thing our local FBI office has time to do is badger a 91-year old man who apparently devoted his life to collecting cultural artifacts. Is there a law against that?
UPDATE: An observant reader passes along this background information on the fascinating life of Dr. Don Miller the media reports don't mention:
 A little background on Don Miller, the "artifact" collector in Waldron. Given recent developments across the pond it would appear that this old guy possessed material of extreme importance to be applied to the NATO war effort that's building up there.

 The gov's pretense to recover artifacts is a ruse. I would wager that 99.999% of the men involved on the ground at this guy's house do not know the real nature of the raid and were told to collect and catalog artifacts while special agents quietly found and took what they were actually looking for.
 Miller was an electrical genius and developed communications hardware for the MIR space station. Had a huge hand in training cosmonauts in how to use it. He was heavily involved in very high tech ham equipment and networks particularly in Russia.
 The old man had a lot of things the state department wanted but illegal artifacts isn't one of them. You can rest assured that Don Miller will not say a word about anything. How would it look for a true American WWII patriot to be outed working with the Russians, even if at the time it was completely legal to do so.
Here's a link mentioning Dr. Miller's work on the MIR Russian space station.
UPDATE II: An anonymous Internet sleuth points out that Dr. Miller had created transponders used by NASA.
 Most recently Dr Miller developed the technology to locate any transmitter through triangulation after the beacon has failed. This technology would be very useful say if an airplane went down and was unable to be located . . .
 Looking at the photo of Dr. Miller's home it is very obvious that he installed several 40'-50' antenna towers on his property which is located out in the middle of nowhere. The FBI (or some agency) set up containment/quarantine tents all over his property and there is no identification of any particular government agencies on the vehicles on his property. I was able to locate video showing those towers being removed which would fall under the definition of artifact but weren't mentioned by reporters.
 The fact that the the news doesn't mention that this man was very prominent in the development of nuclear weapons, space science, groundbreaking transponder technology, spectral analysis or the sole heir to his famous brothers research on the origins of life is wherein the truth lies.
The Internet sleuth also notes that Dr. Miller is the brother and sole heir of Dr. Stanley Miller, a world renowned chemical physicist. A website discussing Dr. Miller's research was taken down just last month. A 2007 story in the Rushville Republican discusses his role in the development of the first atomic bomb during
World War II.
Posted by Gary R. Welsh at 9:21 PM
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Shrunken heads, other artifacts found during FBI raid on Indiana home
An FBI operation at rural home in Indiana, April 2, 2014. WISH-TV

INDIANAPOLIS - FBI agents on Thursday were still removing thousands of artifacts ranging from arrowheads to shrunken heads and Ming Dynasty jade from a house in rural Indiana.
A 91-year-old man amassed the vast collection over several decades, perhaps since he began digging up arrowheads as a child.
People who had toured Donald Miller's home years before the FBI's arrival Wednesday described it as a homemade museum containing diverse items including fossils, Civil War memorabilia and what the owner claimed to be a chunk of concrete from the bunker in which Adolf Hitler committed suicide toward the end of World War II.
"It was just like a big chunk of cement from when they demolished it or whatever," said Joe Runnebohm, whose plumbing business did work in one of Miller's houses several years ago.
Agents of the FBI's art crime team began loading trucks with artifacts that Donald Miller acquired over the decades from sites as varied as China, Russia and Papua New Guinea. However, the FBI was careful not to say whether they believed Miller had knowingly broken any laws. The FBI's aim is to catalog the artifacts and return them to their countries of origin.
The laws regarding the removal or collection of cultural artifacts are extremely complex. State, federal and international laws are involved, Patty Gerstenblith, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago. Much depends on whether objects are considered stolen or were imported with a license, and international treaties dating back as far as 1987 come into play. The United States has various agreements with 15 countries that prohibit importation of items that were illegally acquired, she said, and some nations such as Egypt forbid the export of any cultural objects that were dug from the ground.
It wasn't immediately clear how Miller acquired some of the items, but those who know him said he had been collecting since childhood.
"He's been digging, I'm sure, since he was old enough to dig," said Andi Essex, whose business repaired water damage in Miller's basement a few years ago. None of the artifacts was damaged, she said.
Miller made no secret of his collection, those who know him said. He took schoolchildren on tours of his amateur museum, which even contained human remains, they said. A 150-foot underground tunnel linking two homes on Miller's property in a rural Indiana area whose largest city has a population of about 6,000 people, was adorned with a 60-foot, 4-foot-wide anaconda snakeskin, Runnebohm said. Carefully labeled glass showcases boasted hundreds of Native American arrowheads, along with human skulls - including one with an arrowhead stuck in it. Upstairs was a pipe organ that Miller played for visitors.
"He never tried to hide anything," Runnebohm said. "Everything he had he was real proud of, and he knew what everything was."
Pasted from <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/shrunken-heads-other-artifacts-found-during-fbi-raid-on-indiana-home/>

100 FBI Agents Raid Home of 91Year Old Indiana Collector
On April 3, 2014, close to 100 FBI agents invaded the Rush County home of a 91 year old Indiana man, Donald Miller, and seized thousands of artifacts collected over eight decades. Mr. Miller had collected objects from some 200 countries including Native American, Peruvian, Haitian, New Guinea, Australian, Chinese and other materials. No warrant has been published and no charges have been filed against Mr. Miller, a former missionary who freely shared his collection over the years with neighbors and journalists and gave tours of his museum-like home to school children and anyone else who asked. Mr. Miller denies doing anything illegal.
FBI spokesmen have not yet alleged that any law has been violated, but state that they are carefully assessing the objects to determine if they are unlawfully possessed. Retired FBI agent Virginia Curry commented on the museum-like approach Mr. Miller endeavored to maintain and called the raid, “an embarrassing and unnecessary show of force by the FBI.”
Mr. Miller is said to have been involved in atomic bomb projects when in the armed services during WW2 and worked at the Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis in the 1970s and 1980s. He was an amateur archaeologist who made frequent trips overseas on digs, and he and his wife

were missionaries and supported charitable activities and built churches in Colombia and Haiti.
In statements to the press, FBI spokesmen have incorrectly implied that private ownership by U.S. citizens of cultural artifacts from a country restricting export without a permit from that country is unlawful. Agents have stated that the goal of the seizures is to repatriate objects to source countries or tribes but have not provided any legal justification for either seizure or repatriation at this time. Since the collection was amassed over many decades, without knowing the date of import, there is no indication that objects were imported in violation of any U.S. treaty or agreement under the Cultural Property Implementation Act.
News reports indicate that Mr. Miller possessed many hundreds of Native American artifacts. Native American objects could not be lawfully taken from federal or Indian lands after passage of the American Antiquities Act in 1906, but laws against such collecting were not enforced until passage of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act in 1979. In general, federal law does not prohibit ownership even of human remains so long as they are excavated with permission on private lands, though they may not be sold.
Most collectors are aware that artifacts containing bald or golden eagle feathers may not be sold; fewer realize that it is a crime to sell, and sometimes even to possess an object decorated with feathers from the most common wild birds. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act has been strictly enforced, whereas prosecutions for trading in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a law intended to prevent baiting and over-hunting of migratory birds, are rare.
Neighbors and community residents say they are puzzled why the FBI would send a hundred agents to the home of an elderly resident who was proud of and never hid his collection. “He’s just an ordinary guy. He just loves collecting things. His house looks like something you’ve never been in. It’s just beautiful,” said local Pat Montgomery. Neighbor Andi Essex asked the press, “Why? Why? Leave him alone! He’s done so much for people.” However, in recent years, the FBI Art Crime section has engaged in similar high-profile, low-substance investigations in which seizures and vague accusations of unlawful activity made headlines but resulted in few or no convictions and other federal agencies have engaged in extra-legal seizures and highly publicized “repatriations” from collectors who were unaware of their rights under the law.
Image: “Indiana”. 1917 sheet music cover. The song & tune sometimes better known as “Home Again in Indiana” or “Back Home Again in Indiana”. Mechanical reproduction of copyright expired printed matter; public domain per US law.
http://committeeforculturalpolicy.org/fbi-raids-home-of-91year-old-indiana-collector/

Note: Check out the speculation provided by The Wire on the value of some of Miller's objects. Trust me this author is not an appraiser. When the Wire or FBI says it is priceless that means they don't have a clue what the price is. When they say the cultural value is immeasurable, that means.. they have no clue what culture its from or whether it is authentic or a reproduction.

Apr 4, 2014 3:27PM ET / National  The Wire
Here Are Some of the Artifacts Seized by the FBI from a Makeshift Indiana Museum
Lucy Westcott
 A 91-year-old man's amateur museum was raided by FBI agents who are seeking to repatriate his remarkable trove of artifacts, including Native American items and shrunken heads. According to the Associated Press, the FBI are aiming to catalog and return the objects found at Donald Miller's home back to their countries of origin. Miller spent several decades collecting items from more than 200 countries, including Papua New Guinea, Russia, and China, displaying them at his rural Warldron, Indiana, home. Miller gave tours to local residents and played a pipe organ for visitors.
The FBI has not said yet whether Miller unknowingly “improperly collected artifacts,” like the shrunken skulls, including one with an arrow stuck in it. The laws surrounding artifact collection are complex, and Miller’s case involves looking at state, federal, and international laws. It also depends on whether the FBI considers the objects stolen or imported with a license. But Miller’s friends believe he had been collecting since he was young, or that he at least obtained the items before stringent laws relating to removing and importing objects were applied.
While the artifacts are priceless — the “cultural value of these artifacts is immeasurable,” said FBI Special Agent Robert Jones — we attempted to calculate what the potential value of their worth could be.
A 60ft, 4ft-wide anaconda snakeskin
That’s a frightening thought and an enormous snakeskin. Genuine Ostrich Hides, a company involved in the "exotic hides business" has priced one foot of anaconda skin at $275, so Miller’s hide is potentially worth about $16,500.
Civil War memorabilia
The FBI haven’t provided specifics about the memorabilia, but a $1,000 Confederate bill is currently going for $75,000 on eBay.

Fossils
The price of fossils vary, and can easily climbs into the tens of thousands of dollars. We wonder if Miller’s are anything like this pair of angry Romanian bear skeletons, a steal at $99,000 for two.
Ming Dynasty jade
Ming Dynasty artifacts from China similarly range in their value. A rare vase from the era sold for $1.3 million in 2012, rescued from its life as a Long Island door stop. At Christie's, Ming Dynasty jade fetched up to $35,000.
Native American arrowheads
Miller’s property, which contained several buildings, is constructed on Iroquois land. Native American arrowheads start at $0.99 on eBay, and larger collections command several hundred dollars.
A chunk of concrete allegedly from the bunker in which Adolf Hitler committed suicide
Priceless due to its historic rather than monetary value (if confirmed that it's actually from Hitler's bunker), Joe Runnebohm, whose plumbing business worked at Miller's house, summed it up well. "It was just like a big chunk of cement from when they demolished it or whatever," Runnebohm told the AP. http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/04/here-are-some-of-the-artifacts-seized-by-the-fbi-from-a-makeshift-indiana-museum/360206/

FBI Expert

Larry Zimmerman, a professor of anthropology and museum studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, tells the Star he has "never seen a collection like this in my life except in some of the largest museums." The professor may, however, regret this quote if it was properly reported. No question that Professor Zimmerman has the archaeological credentials on paper to do the job. Professor Zimmerman has listed no curatorial experience or no expertise in a broad range of ethnographic art which Miller has in his collection. Many scholars of Native American Art are members of the Native American Art Studies Association (NAASA). Whether any of these issues are relevant remains to be seen.

CURRICULUM VITAE (abbreviated)

LARRY JOHN ZIMMERMAN

Home Address: 3502 Calibogue Circle, Indianapolis IN 46228

Home Phone: E-mail only please
Office Address:
      Department of Anthropology
      433 Cavanaugh
      IUPUI
      425 University Blvd.
      Indianapolis IN 46202-1540
Office Phone: 1 317-274-2383
E-mail: larzimme@iupui.edu; oneotaljz@gmail.com Web Site: larryjzimmerman.com

DEGREES:

1976 Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Kansas-Lawrence
1973 M. Phil. Anthropology, University of Kansas
1971 M.A. Anthropology, University of Iowa-Iowa City
1969 B.A. (Honors) Anthropology, University of Iowa
 

POSITIONS HELD:

2004-present, Professor of Anthropology & Museum Studies, Public Scholar of Native American 
Representation, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Eiteljorg Museum. Acting
Director, Museum Studies program, 2008
2002-2004 Head, Archaeology Department, Minnesota Historical Society
2001-2002 Adjunct Professor, of Anthropology, University of Iowa
1998-2001, Department Executive Officer (Acting), American Indian and Native Studies, and Visiting 
Professor of American Indian and Native Studies, University of Iowa
1996-2001, Research Associate, Office of the State Archaeologist of Iowa, Iowa City
1996-2001, Research Associate, Archaeology Laboratory, University of South Dakota, Vermillion
1996-98 Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Iowa
1994-1996 Program Director, Anthropology, University of South Dakota
1992 Visiting Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK
1992-1997 Adjunct Professor and Graduate Faculty Fellow, Museum Studies, University of Nebraska,  
Lincoln
1990-1996 Distinguished Regents Professor of Anthropology, University of South Dakota
1988-1994 Chairperson, Department of Social Behavior, University of South Dakota
1987-88 Assistant to the President (President's Fellow), University of South Dakota
1985 Faculty Administrative Intern, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, University  of 
South Dakota 
1983-1988 Professor and Anthropology Program Director, University of South Dakota
1978-1983 Associate Professor and Anthropology Program Director, University of South Dakota, Tenured
1980
1974-1978 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of South Dakota
1974-1978 Director, Archaeology Laboratory, University of South Dakota

FIELD EXPERIENCE:
Ethnographic-1999-2000, Effigy Mounds cultural affiliation (oral tradition interviews), 1969 Ceramics market systems, Mexico. Archaeological-1967 through present. Locations: Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Mexico
Types of Sites: Woodland/Archaic/Paleoindian rock shelter and campsites, Oneota, Mill Creek, Central 
Plains, Great Oasis villages, Classic Teotihuacan, Aztec, Ossuaries, Conquest Period ranchos, historic  
forts, cabins, houses, trading posts, historic estate, homeless encampments

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL HONORS:

Richard Frucht Memorial lecturer, University of Alberta, Edmonton (2012)
Outstanding Distinguished Resident Faculty, School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI (2009)
Peter J. Ucko Memorial Award for Contributions to World Archaeology, World Archaeological Congress,
(2008)
Elden Johnson Memorial Lecturer, University of Minnesota and Council for Minnesota Archaeology,
(2005)
Online Faculty Fellow, 2005-2006, IUPUI
Mariko Mizuhara Award for Cross-Cultural Understanding (2000), University of Iowa
National Lecturer, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society (1991-93)
Harrington Lecturer (1991-92), College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Dakota
Distinguished Regents Professor (1990)
Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship, University of South Dakota (1990)
Phi Beta Kappa (1988)
Presidential Fellow, University of South Dakota (1987-88)
Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching, University of South Dakota
(1986)
Danforth Associate (1981)
Teacher of the Year, Student Association, University of South Dakota (1980)
Lambda Alpha (1980 Anthropology Honorary)
Alpha Kappa Delta (1975 Sociology Honorary)
Sigma Xi (Fellow 1987, Associate, 1969 Scientific Honorary)

 

Repatriation and Preservation Spring 2014

Preservation of Heritage last year in Mali
By Derek Fincham on  January 7, 2014 — 1 Comment
The footlockers used to transport the manuscripts out of Bamako
Joshua Hammer has done some terrific reporting on the effort to preserve medieval manuscripts in Timbuktu last year:
At the time Haidara also had no idea if the militants knew how many manuscripts were in Timbuktu or how valuable they were. But quietly, determined not to attract attention, he laid contingency plans. With funds that Haidara’s library association already had on hand from foreign donors, he began purchasing footlockers in the markets of Timbuktu and Mopti, and delivered them, two or three at a time, to the city’s 40 libraries. During the day, behind closed doors, Haidara and his assistants packed the manuscripts into the chests. Then, in the dead of night, when the militants slept, mule carts transported the chests to safe houses scattered around the city. Over three months, they bought, distributed and packed nearly 2,500 footlockers.

Joshua Hammer, The Race to Save Mali’s Priceless Artifacts, Smithsonian magazine, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Race-to-Save-Malis-Priceless-Artifacts-236271361.html

The Tombouctou Manuscripts Project

Timbuktu has often been invoked as a symbol of the most distant place on Earth, as a mysterious and exotic, but unreachable, attraction. Yet, it is a real city with a history.

Indeed, it has a rich and diverse heritage and a fascinating past. The city and its desert environs are an archive of handwritten texts in Arabic and in African languages in the Arabic script, produced between the 13th and the 20th centuries. The manuscript libraries of Timbuktu are significant repositories of scholarly production in West Africa and the Sahara. Given the large number of manuscript collections it is surprising that Timbuktu as an archive remains largely unknown and under-used. Timbuktu’s manuscript collections deserve close study. It is a significant starting-point for reflecting on Africa’s written traditions.
Recognising its significance as a site of African architecture and of its scholarly past, Unesco declared Timbuktu a World Heritage Site in 1990.
A South Africa-Mali Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was officially launched in 2003 and a major achievement of this project was the new library-archive building, which was inaugurated in Timbuktu in January 2009.
The Tombouctou Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town (UCT) is dedicated to research various aspects of writing and reading the handwritten works of Timbuktu and beyond. Training young researchers is an integral part of its work.

Zuni Ask Europe to Return Sacred Art

   By RACHEL DONADIO, APRIL 8, 2014  Art & Design  New York Times   
                                                           

PARIS — Octavius Seowtewa, an elder of the Native American Zuni tribe from New Mexico, was sitting in a Paris cafe late last month, scrolling through his iPhone pictures of Ahayuda, carved and decorated wooden poles that are considered sacred to the Zuni. They were taken at his recent meetings with representatives of major European museums, whom he is hoping he can persuade to return the artifacts.
Mr. Seowtewa, who exudes a quiet persistence and was dressed that day in a black leather blazer

, dark slacks and a button-down shirt, acknowledged that he hadn’t had much luck in his meetings at the Musée du Quai Branly here or at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, among others. But he said he was just getting started.
Since 1978, the Zuni have been more proactive than other Native American tribes in reclaiming ceremonial objects: in their case, more than 100 Ahayuda, also called war gods, from institutions and collections in the United States. The Zuni have taken advantage of federal legislation that requires all United States institutions to return objects considered sacred by Native Americans to individual tribes or risk losing federal funding. But those laws do not apply in Europe. Here, the Zuni case is a moral one. “That’s all there is,” Mr. Seowtewa said. “We believe if you listen to us about the power these objects have to our community, that these are exemplars of sacred objects, of communally owned objects,” then museums will consider sending them back, he added.
Photo

 Mr. Seowtewa said the Zuni wanted back only the Ahayuda and are not asking for other artifacts, including pottery and beads.
But museum experts say that some European museums are concerned that sending objects back, especially if they were bought by museums from private owners, would set an unwelcome precedent that could call into question the legitimacy of other works in their collections: from artifacts acquired from Africa and Asia to even the Elgin marbles in the British Museum, whose return Greece has formally requested several times. Each year, on the winter solstice, the Zuni make two Ahayuda to protect the tribe from harm and to promote fertility. Only the tribe’s special Bow priests are allowed to touch the Ahayuda, which are communally owned, Mr. Seowtewa said, so any that left the Zuni Pueblo over the years, by definition, left illegally.

There are hundreds of Ahayuda extant; they are also made whenever a new Bow priest is initiated, which hasn’t happened in decades. But Mr. Seowtewa said it was impossible to determine when any particular statue had been made or when it had gone missing, because the Ahayuda had been secreted away for centuries, since the tribe’s first contact with Europeans.
While some European museums have sent back a few individual items from their Native American collections to various tribes over the years — as well as human remains, which are governed by different laws — the Zuni are the first tribe to seek the return of objects from so many museums at once in a proactive way.
“My hope is that what we started in the States, being the first tribe to repatriate,” will continue in Europe, Mr. Seowtewa said.
In a separate case last year, the Annenberg Foundation bought 24 items considered sacred to the Hopi Native American tribe at a private auction in Paris for $530,000, in order to return them. That sale was orchestrated with the help of the United States State Department, which has said it is fully supportive of the Zuni quest to reclaim their Ahayuda. But these cases of repatriation are never simple.

“It’s a culture clash, of museum culture and Zuni culture,” said Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, the curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who has been working with the Zuni tribe on repatriation issues since 2002 and secured grant funding for the European trip, on which he accompanied Mr. Seowtewa.