Treasure Hunters Rob Albania in Broad Daylight

Ancient tomb is only the latest site to be ravaged by looters on the hunt for gold and artifacts - who are devastating Albania’s archeological sites under the noses of the authorities.

Besar Likmeta, Balkan Insight, 04.06.2012

Stone blocks of ancient tomb damaged by looter | Photo courtesey of Auron Tare

Grave robbers came well prepared last week when they moved on a monumental tomb of large stone blocks located by the road that once connected the ancient city of Finiq with the hinterland.

With the help of a heavy construction digger the looters cut a trench through the hillside several metres deep, scattering stone blocks of the tomb with a power shovel.

The monumental tomb, believed to date from the Hellenistic period, from between the Second and Third Century BC, situated in the Palasa valley in the Delvina region of southern Albania, is only metres from an important late-Bronze Age archeological site known as Bajkaj tumulus.

“This monument was destroyed in broad daylight with an excavator under the watch of the all cultural institutions and the state, which has a duty to protect our national heritage,” says historian Auron Tare, who first raised the alarm about the looting of the monument.

The destruction of the monumental tomb is unfortunately not a singular incident in Albania.

Archeologists and activists alike say Albanian sites are regularly targeted by looters, who in the past two decades have wrought terrific damage to the country’s historical patrimony.

The theft of antiques became rampant in Albania in the 1990s, as the country struggled through a period of anarchy and lawlessness following the collapse of the authoritarian Communist regime.

Crater left by looters who used an excavator to dig the tomb | Photo courtesy of Auron Tare

Though the situation has since improved, experts say theft from archaeological sites continues to be a problem.

This plunder often goes on under the nose of local authorities, who experts say should be held accountable when heritage sites are looted.

“Cases like this are widespread across Albania,” says Lorenc Bejko, professor of archeology in the University of Tirana.

According to Bjeko, looting is ongoing in the Shkumbin valley in central Albania, in the region of Korca in the south and in Shkodra in the north.

“We have indications that there is looting even in protected areas like the necropolis of the [archeological park] of Apollonia,” Bejko said.

“Everywhere, from north to south and east to west, looters are hunting for buried treasure and artifacts, and the damage they cause is immense,” he added.

According to Bejko, 75 per cent of the archeological sites that he has visited in recent years have experienced looting from treasure hunters, although the exact scale of this problem is almost impossible to measure.

Situated between two major ancient civilizations, Greek and Roman, in a land once occupied by Illyrian tribes, Albania is dotted with hundreds archeological sites starting from prehistoric times.

Impressive former Hellenistic and Roman colonies, such as Butrint and Apollonia, are rich in extant temples and villas, which offer precious insight into the ancient Mediterranean world.

Human remains unearthed by looters in the looted tomb near the village of Bajkaj, in Southern Albania | Photo courtesy of Auron Tare

These sites have enthused the interest of treasure hunters, who experts say are getting increasingly sophisticated in their illegal trade, while the authorities remain one step behind.

According to Heritage Without Borders, a consortium of 12 groups engaged in the preservation of cultural patrimony in the Balkans, Albania needs to strengthen its laws in order to combat the growing contraband in artifacts.

At a conference in Tirana in August 2011, the organization urged the authorities to amend the cultural heritage law to provide for better monitoring and enhanced security of cultural sites.

The organization also called for the improved division of competencies among public institutions, which often fail to cooperate to the desired level.

Bejko explains that Albania’s archeological sites are monitored by local agencies divided by administrative divisions and the local municipalities concerning the sites that fall in their jurisdiction.

However, regional agencies tasked at protecting monuments and municipalities fail to cooperate properly, while officials are not held accountable when sites are damaged or destroyed by looters.

“If we hold mayors accountable for cannabis grown in their territory, why shouldn’t we charge them when cultural sites are destroyed with heavy machinery for all to see?” Bejko asked.

Tare, former director of the Butrint Archeological Park agrees, arguing that although looting is also a problem elsewhere, foreign governments do a better job at investigating and bringing those responsible to justice.

“Albania’s cultural monuments are facing an unprecedented wave of destruction from people digging for artifacts,” Tare said.

“Cultural institutions seem totally inept in taking legal action in order to stop the looting and these monuments seemed to have been abandoned to their fate,” he added.

This article is funded under the BICCED project, supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme.

The Miho Museum: time to resolve its dispute with Italy?

Lord Renfrew has reminded us of the unresolved case of the antiquities in the Miho Museum. He mentioned the museum at several points through his Rome lecture and wove it into his closing words:

If the striking advances recently achieved by the Italian authorities in combating the illicit traffic in looted antiquities are to be of wide general, indeed international value, a number of steps will be necessary. The first of these could be the formal and published acceptance of the 1970 Rule by museums and then by private collectors in all countries.

The second should be the true internationalisation of such a position. That would include, for instance, the recognition by Japan of its obligations under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, and the equivalent recognition by the Trustees of the Miho Museum of their own responsibilities. I do not imply here that the Miho Museum is alone in flouting the conventions of good conduct in this respect, but it is certainly prominent. And here it should be remembered that many museums, even private museums, have charitable status in relation to taxation. That status should be questioned by national authorities if the institution is seen to be flouting either international law or the widely shared ethical standards implied by the UNESCO Convention. Only then can progress be made.

Details of the controversial acquisitions by the Miho Museum emerged in the Rome trial of Robert Hecht and Marion True in June 2007. The Italian prosecutors had images of a Roman marble oscilla. Although these are images that are likely to have been seized in the Geneva Freeport, there was a comparable dossier seized in Basel. Earlier reports have indicated that there are some 50 objects in the Miho Museum that are under investigation by the Italian authorities. (Other countries, including Iran, may also be looking at their collection.) There are also indications that some antiquities in the Miho Museum were supplied by Gianfranco Becchina.

The Miho Museum opened in 1997 with a list of high-profile guests including museum directors and private collectors. The collection of European antiquities was reportedly formed from 1990. One of the key figures was the dealer Noriyoshi Horiuchi who trained as lawyer but turned into an antiquities dealer under the guidance of Dr Elie Borowski (Souren Melikian, "A Splendid Art Collection Goes On Display in Japan", International Herald Tribune November 6, 1997). Horiuchi spoke about concerns relating to authenticity as well as "illegally excavated objects" (Rita Reif, "A Japanese vision of the ancient world", New York Times August 16, 1998):

"We bought only from major dealers ... And we invited museum curators, scholars, collectors, restorers and dealers to look at the collection and urged everyone to tell us of any problems they saw."

It would be interesting for the Miho Museum to declare the names of the major dealers who provided the antiquities for the collection.

The Miho Museum needs to find a reasonable resolution with the Italian authorities or it will continue to be perceived as a museum that does not hold an internationally recognised ethical standard for acquisitions.

In 2000 the Miho Museum returned a statue of a bodhisattva, purchased "legally through a reliable art dealer based in Switzerland", to China (Mari Yamaguchi, "Japanese museum investigating Chinese statue's history", AP April 20, 2000). Hiroaki Katayama, the chief curator at the Miho Museum was quoted:

we decided to investigate because we want to know the truth and serve our research purposes.

The Shinji Shumeikai, the sect linked to the Miho Museum's founder, has as its values the "pursuit of truth, virtue and beauty". Now is the time for the Miho Museum to investigate the Italian claims with rigour.

There is also a lesson for other museums that have been seeking to build up collections of antiquities in an age when the finite archaeological record has been under so much threat from looting and the illicit trade in antiquities.

Source: Looting Matters

Image
Composite of Roman marble oscilla in the Miho Museum that have no declared collecting histories.