Turkey and the AAMD Find Some Accomodation

1.  www.artsjournal March 20, 2012
"......I think that making judgments about possible "loot" requires informed, careful analysis by experts and (if necessary) by law enforcement agencies. An "open source platform" is likely to attract a fair amount of intemperate discourse and unsupported allegations that could prove harmful and counterproductive. I think that deputizing the general public to ferret out "loot" at their local museums is a problematic enterprise.
Speaking of antiquities lists, one of the first things that Max Anderson did when he hit the ground in his new gig as director of the Dallas Museum was to add 17 objects to the Association of Art Museum Directors' registry of works acquired since June 4, 2008 that have uncertain post-1970 provenances. (Actually, three of the works were acquired in the 1990s.)
What's surprising is that those objects weren't posted before, since the AAMD requires such postings of their members. (See "F" under the AAMD's guidelines.) One wonders how many other museums have ignored this posting requirement.
In response to my query, Max told me this morning that a Deaccession Database (such as the one that he instituted as director of the Indianapolis Museum) is also in the works for Dallas. " aamd.org
chasing aphrodite.com


2. The Cleveland List: 21 objects Turkey wants Cleveland Museum of Art to Return
Posted on April 2, 2012 |

On Saturday, Jason revealed in the Los Angeles Times that the government of Turkey is seeking the return of dozens of allegedly looted antiquities from American museums, including 21 objects from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
We’ve posted a complete list of the Cleveland objects below. They range from 14th Century BC Hittite objects through the Greek and Roman period and up to Ottoman period tiles and ceramic work.
 The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius (reigned AD 161-180)(CMA 1986.5)

The most prominent piece is likely this bronze Roman statue believed to represent Marcus Aurelius, which Cleveland acquired in 1986. On its website, the museum describes its origin as “Turkey, Bubon(?) (in Lycia.)” It is unclear how the bronze got from Bubon to Cleveland, and whether the object was granted an export permit, as required since the passage of Turkey’s 1906 cultural patrimony law. The Cleveland Museum of Art declined to answer questions about Turkey’s claim.
As David Gill has noted, a series of monumental bronze statues were taken from the sebasteion, or imperial cult room, of Bubon. A similar bronze depicting Lucius Verus is in the collection of Shelby White.
In the coming days, we’ll be posting details on the requested objects at the Getty and Dumbarton Oaks. We already posted the list of contested objects at the Met  here. chasing aphrodite.com

3. Scoop: Turkey asks Getty, Met, Cleveland and Dumbarton Oaks to Return Dozens of Antiquities
Posted on March 30, 2012 | 2 Comments

In Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, Jason reports on Turkey’s bid to repatriate dozens of allegedly looted antiquities in American museums. The requests include 10 objects at the J. Paul Getty Museum; 18 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; 21 objects at the Cleveland Musuem of Art; and the Sion Treasure at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks. Below we’ve provided the complete article. In the coming days, we’ll be providing additional details on the objects sought at each of the museums. Turkey asks U.S. museums for return of antiquities The Getty and the New York Met are among the U.S. institutions the Turkish government has contacted over artifacts it believes were smuggled out of the country. chasing aphrodite.com

4.  LOS ANGELES 8:48 PM PDT, March 30, 2012The government of Turkey is asking American museums to return dozens of artifacts that were allegedly looted from the country’s archaeological sites, opening a new front in the search for antiquities smuggled out of their original countries through an illicit trade.
 The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection are among the institutions that the Turkish government has contacted, officials say.
 Turkey believes the antiquities were illegally excavated and smuggled out of the country after the passage of a 1906 law that gave the state ownership of antiquities in the ground.
 Inspired by the success of its Mediterranean neighbors Italy and Greece, Turkey is taking a more aggressive stance toward its claims, many of which were first made decades ago.
 “Turkey is not trying to start a fight,” said Murat Suslu, Turkey’s director general for cultural heritage and museums. “We are trying to develop … cooperation and we hope these museums will also understand our point of view.”
 Turkey is presenting the museums with supporting evidence and has threatened to halt all loans of art to those institutions until they respond to the claims. Loans have already been denied to the Met, a Turkish official said.
 American museums’ antiquities collections have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years as evidence emerged of their ties to an illicit trade in artifacts found in archaeological sites around the world.
 Confronted with that evidence, the Getty, the Met, the Cleveland, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Princeton University Art Museum returned more than 100 looted objects to Italy and Greece, changed their acquisition policies and formed collaboration agreements that allow for loans to replace acquisitions of suspect material.
 But new evidence continues to emerge, underscoring that the scope of the problem is far wider. In January, Italy announced that it had recovered an additional 200 objects and fragments from the Met and Princeton after they were tied to an ongoing criminal investigation of Italian antiquities dealer Edoardo Almagia and Princeton antiquities curator Michael Padgett.

 None of the museums facing requests from Turkey would release a list of the contested objects in their collections, but The Times obtained a partial list from Turkish officials of what the country is asking for. Judging from publicly available records, most of the objects were acquired by the museums since the 1960s and have little or no documented ownership history before that, suggesting they could have come from illicit excavations.
Statue of a Muse. From Cremna, Turkey, circa 200 AD. (JPGM 94.AA.22)
The 10 Getty objects sought by Turkey were acquired from dealers, auction houses or collectors for more than $1 million between 1968 and 1994 and include four marble muses now on display in the Getty Villa’s Basilica gallery. According to ownership histories provided by the Getty in accordance with its reformed antiquities policy, several originated with Elie Borowski or Nicolas Koutoulakis, two antiquities dealers known to have ties to the illicit trade.
 The Getty’s talks with Turkey began in the 1990s, government officials said, and gained steam under the directorship of interim museum director David Bomford, who left the Getty in February.
 “We expect those discussions to continue and while they do, we will not be getting into specifics,” said Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig.
 The 18 contested objects at the Met are all from the private collection of Norbert Schimmel, a longtime Met trustee who died in 1990. The museum acquired the Schimmel collection in 1989, and several of the contested objects are now highlights of the museum’s Ancient Near East Galleries.
 A Hittite gold pendant of a goddess with a child, circa 1400 BCE from Central Anatolia. (MMA 1989.281.12)
 Harold Holzer, a spokesman for the Met, initially denied the museum had received a request for specific objects. He later acknowledged in a statement that Turkey had requested information about the 18 objects in September, adding that the museum is “in the process of providing” that information. Turkish officials say the Met’s only response has been to write a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
 At Dumbarton Oaks inWashington, D.C., ancient silver plates and other decorative objects known as the Sion Treasure are among the items Turkey is seeking to recover. The treasure was reportedly found in the early 1960s in an ancient burial mound in Kumluca, Turkey. It was acquired by the museum in 1966 from a private collector who bought them that same year from George Zakos, an antiquities dealer with documented ties to the illicit trade.
Paten with Cross, from the Sion Treasure. (BZ.1963.36.3)
 Turkey has been asking for the return of the treasure since 1968, hoping to reunite the objects with the rest of the treasure, which is in a museum in Antalya, on Turkey’s southwest coast.
 Twenty-one objects are being sought from the Cleveland Museum, which Turkish officials say has not responded to their inquiries. A museum spokeswoman declined to comment or release a list of contested objects.
 Turkey has long sought the return of objects taken illegally from its borders, with occasional success.
 Most famously, the country’s government fought a six-year legal battle with the Met for the return of the Lydian Hoard, a collection of goods looted from a burial mound in western Turkey. (It, too, had passed through the hands of Zakos.) The Met agreed to return the objects in 1993 after evidence emerged that museum officials had been aware of the material’s illicit origins and sought to hide it. To the chagrin of Turkish authorities, soon after its return a key piece of the treasure was stolen from the local museum to which it was returned.
 CMA 1942.204
 A similar battle played out between Turkey and the Boston MFA over the Roman statue Weary Herakles. Turkey requested the statue’s return in the 1990s after finding its bottom half in an excavation in Perge. The MFA had purchased the top half in 1981 jointly with New York collectors Leon Levy and Shelby White. The MFA’s piece has been known to fit the bottom half in Turkey since 1992, but the museum only returned it last September as part of a broader cultural cooperation agreement.
 In hopes of avoiding such protracted disputes, Turkey adopted a more aggressive stance in 2010, barring loans to institutions harboring contested objects. The Art Newspaper reported earlier this month that two British museums have recently been denied loans.
 “It’s part of a broader shift in the government saying, ‘culture matters to us,’” said Christina Luke, a lecturer in archaeology at Boston University. While working in Turkey over the last decade, Luke has seen Turkey make major investments in regional cultural sites, efforts to educate children about the value of their heritage and attempts to clarify and strengthen the country’s cultural policies.
 “Turkey is offended because of having insincere responses to her claims,” said Turkish official Suslu. “Turkey has been fighting against illicit trafficking of cultural objects since the Late Ottoman Period. Many ways were tried during the past years but they were not sufficient.”

Madison Ancient and Tribal Show - May 2012 Big Success

In the three years since the Caskey Lees cancelled its annual International Tribal Show in New York City former exhibitors and local and foreign dealers have had to make do with ad hoc shows of their own. Coalitions have formed and reformed to try to capitalize on the dealers and collectors who arrive in the metropolitan area each spring to attend the tribal auctions.  The evolution of this week of tribal art events has been fascinating. Each year has witnessed better organized events showcasing bigger names, offering more important works of art and attracting bigger crowds.  Last year's inaugural AOA show at the elegant Sinclair Mansion on 5th Avenue, led by Maureen Zarember of Tambaran Gallery, received some 500 guests on opening night.  New exhibitors included Galeria Guilhelm Montagut from Spain and Californian Andrew Berz.  Around the corner the literal new kids on the block was the Madison Ancient and Tribal Show at the exquisitely appointed Arader Gallery.  This group evolved out of a small hotel showcase three years ago to go toe to toe with AOA on every level. Organized by New York dealers Amyas Naegele and James Stephenson MATA brought in renowned veteran dealers Kevin Conru, Adrian Schlag and Bruce Frank and spiced things up with up-and-comers Joe Loux (California) and Kellim Brown (Brussels). 

  Among the impressive works on display were an ancient Karawari totem with a cave patina from New Guinea (Bruce Frank), a 19th c Mende statue (Stephenson), a Fang Byeri (Adrian Schlag) and a compact, intensely expressive Mambila figure (Amyas Naegele).  "We needed to find a deluxe venue to show off the art to its best advantage, " explained James Stephenson.  "When we became aware that the Arader gallery was available we jumped.  The owner was enthusiastic. The rooms and lighting were stellar and the staff could not have been more helpful." 

  MATA's opening was brimming with art buyers from around the world. A steady stream of guest strolled the rooms and corridors throughout the week.  Among the notable visitors were singer songwriter Suzanne Vega, fashion designer Bliss Lau, playwright Edward Albee, curator Alisa Lagamma, dealers Alain Monbrison and Entwistle,  and the Antique Roadshow's own Leslie Kino.  "It was a great experience for all of us,"  said Amyas Naegele.  "Everyone had great material, sold well and are enthusiastic about coming back next year and making this an even bigger and better event.  Moving forward it's vital that we have ever greater cooperation between ourselves, the auction houses, AOA, the museums and independent dealers in promoting not only this event but tribal art in general.  If we don't shepherd our own future we leave it to the wolves."  Amyas Naegele May 2012

Working with an Appraiser - Tips from Kim

 In working with an appraiser, many questions might come to mind as to how they work with clients— from photography and inspection, appraisal methodology and  format, to billing, and timelines for completion.
For this article, let’s stick to the first question. You’ve made the call to an appraiser and made an appointment for her to come to your home and inspect your objects. To prepare for this visit, knowing what allows her to do her best work will benefit you both in terms of time and money.

Here’s a to-do list before an appraiser visits you:

             1.  Locate prior appraisals and authentications, original purchase documents, insurance policies if art is listed, and exhibition and publication history of art, as appropriate. If updating an insurance policy, confirm monetary levels at which an object needs to be scheduled. These levels vary from policy to policy.  Having these documents copied for an appraiser helps them by not having them research information that was already collected, e.g. the original purchase price and seller of a glass vase, the height of a tall armoire or deciphering an illegible signature. Having these documents ready allows  the appraiser to be efficient onsite. Also, the information in the furnished documents can be included in the current appraisal, eliminating the need to refer to multiple documents in the future.

2.       Confirm that large pieces can be accessed and photographed. If a large painting is in a cramped dark hallway, if at all possible, move it to an area where it will be easier to navigate with a camera. Move heavy furniture that blocks access to arworks. Unwrap items tucked away in closets and boxes.

3.       Lay out the smaller pieces to be appraised in a well lit area, on a shelf or table. Leave room on the table for the appraiser’s tools and documents.

4.       Open curtains to let natural light in. If your house is dark, provide extra lamps or lighting where the appraiser will be working.

5.       If the appraiser is going to walk through your collection and talk to you about each piece informally, you might consider some type of numbering system for each piece, so you can refer back to the pieces quickly and easily after the appraiser is gone.

If you have any questions or you want to discuss an appraisal, call me at 972-239-4620 or email me at kim@arttrak.com.

Bill Mercer - Tribal art appraiser

After more than 25 years in the museum profession, Bill Mercer has completed his accreditation as an appraiser with the International Society of Appraisers and opened his own business specializing in the appraisal of Native American, Pre-Columbian, African, Oceanic and other tribal arts.  Mercer’s professional background includes stints at the Curator for the Art of Africa and the Americas at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and he was the Director of the Montana Historical Society Museum.  He has been the curator of numerous exhibitions and has published extensively.  Mercer continues to lecture and work with museums and collectors.  He was the curator for “Pueblo to Pueblo: The Legacy of Southwest Indian Pottery” that is currently traveling to various venues around the country and is currently working on an exhibition for the Bowers Museum that will open in Bogota, Colombia later this year.

His unique blend of education, which includes working on a PhD in Native American art history, and experiences provide him with a unique ability to work internationally with museums, to advise collectors and to perform appraisals.  Located in Southern California Bill can be contacted at bmercer3000@gmail.com or 818-624-0310.

My Credit Card Number is....

The ability to transfer money has changed significantly in the past ten years with services like Paypal and others that permit the transfer of money over the Internet. We have used Paypal for years for all our credit card processing and are very pleased with their service. With convenience, however, comes opportunity for the bad guys. It is surprising that the auction houses were not more sophisticated in their awareness to these potential problems.

"The Art Newspaper reports on an interesting and widespread problem with the art market in the United Kingdom. It seems fake credit cards have been used to steal art up for auction. And as the report notes, the problem flows all the way to Bonhams and Christie's, with as many as 30 auction houses reportedly affected.
Says one anonymous auction house director:
"[The problem is that people] were buying goods over the phone and picking them up before the transaction had cleared,” says the director of one of the defrauded auction houses, who wishes to remain anonymous. “We trusted that banks would be doing checks at their end. Aside from the usual identity checks we can’t tell whether the card that people use over the phone is theirs."
It is an obvious problem, but one that has not really been discussed. If buyers are allowed to remain anonymous, it is a perfect environment for criminal intervention. Auction houses play such a crucial role in the art market, and as a consequence play an important role in the way we transfer these important parts of our collective cultural heritage. But these institutions are poorly designed to safeguard against theft, looting, forgery, and fraud.
The way in which auction houses conduct business today has been revolutionised; online, anonymous and increasingly international bidding is now commonplace. This spate of frauds, however, suggests that the art market’s financial procedures have yet to catch up. " The Art Newspaper