Footnotes

• The oft-stolen Ghent altarpiece is being restored at a cost of $1.3 million, only a piece or two will be removed from display at a time. But if you can't make it to Ghent you can view the whole altarpiece in 100 billion pixels here.
• The now-closed Knoedler art gallery has settled a suit involving an allegedly forged Jackson Pollock. 
• In case you missed it, Arnold Peter Weiss, a prominent physician and coin collector wrote an essay on buying ancient coins as part of a plea agreement. Chasing Aphrodite has published the essay on scribd.
• Public lands officials in Idaho are urging people not to disturb the increasing number of antiquities and other sites which are being revealed by the plague of forest fires.
• Apparently some use their art to secure loans.
• The four thieves in the theft of Chinese art from the Fitzwilliam in Cambridgeshire have been convicted, but where's the art?
• Art forger Ken Perenyi continues to claim he's doing everyone a favor by forgin' art. I've got his book sitting on my desk but haven't had a chance to read it just yet. In an interview with Janice Harper he claims:

"My lawyers said at the time, 'Ken, when your own victims circle the wagons to prevent you from being indicted, that's got to be the definition of the perfect crime.'" Why would they protect him? Perhaps a better question is why would they turn him in? To do so would reveal not only the fact that they were duped. It would also mean they could not continue profiting from his work. "I would say from the art world establishment... the money is immaterial. They're not interested in trying to recover money at all. What they are worried about is their reputation. ... At the time of [the FBI] investigation, they had several important paintings that had gone through the auction houses that they knew were authored by me. And by looking at those paintings they would say, 'Oh my God, if he was good enough to do this, this certainly wasn't the first. So if he's indicted, what is this going to open up?'" What it would open up, Perenyi suggests, is that there are well over a thousand of his paintings out there right now, masquerading as "authentic." How does that impact the buyers of these works?

Footnotes

Art and Soup

Mike Madison wonders what the new agreement between the Warhol foundation and Campbell's is really about:

It’s unclear to me what, exactly, is being licensed. . . . "The starting point, said [Michael Hermann, Director of Licensing for the Foundation], was to review all of Warhol’s Colored Soup Can paintings to find four images that worked well as a group and translated well as packaging. Then Campbell’s created labels derived from the original works.” That makes a little more sense. But the cans themselves (pictured above, from the LA Times) seem “Warholian” to me, rather than “Warhol.” 

Deep cuts to funding heritage in Greece in USA Today

The Ministry of Culture's budget has been cut by 50% over the past two years, and deputy minister of culture Kostas Tzavaras says another 50% cut looms. But many here say that even if the cuts are a long time coming, they do not have to result in a reduction in care for Greece's architectural treasures. The Ministry of Culture has been renowned more for its spending sprees and ineptitude than its protection of monuments, analysts say. Former Culture minister Pavlos Geroulanos said he would resign after robbers stole dozens of priceless artifacts in February from a museum. Some of the bronze and pottery pieces dated from the ninth century B.C. and were protected by a single guard at the Archaeological Museum of the history of the Ancient Olympic Games. Still, the Culture Ministry says it has no choice but to pare back on things like paid security guards. "I didn't come like Santa Claus," Tzavaras said. "I don't have money to give away, like other ministers did."

ART LAW SCHOOL « Clancco Yes, something called the art law school exists. Terrific idea:

 The focus of the ART LAW SCHOOL is to introduce the artist to the “must-know” legal and business issues that arise when making art.

The Art Law Blog wonders about the big sale of Warhol's by the Warhol foundation: If it's not the tax exemptions, what is it?

No one would suggest that what the Warhol Foundation is doing is "unethical" or "repulsive" or "Stalinist." Nobody questions the right of artist-endowed foundations to sell work. Nobody claims those works are held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations. But why? Why are works owned by, say, the Warhol Museum held in the public trust, while works owned by, say, the Warhol Foundation are not?

The Daily Pennsylvanian : Turkish 'Troy gold' at Penn Museum stirs up controversy

The 24 pieces of “Troy gold” jewelry that the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology lent to the Turkish government in a landmark agreement announced Sept. 4 may have a more complicated history than meets the eye. Archaeology professor Brian Rose, a curator in the museum’s Mediterranean section, believes the artifacts arrived at Penn after they had been previously stolen. “I’m virtually certain they were looted,” said Rose, who has spent time studying the jewelry. “The question is from which region were they looted.” Penn had originally purchased the jewelry legally in 1966 from an antiquities dealer in Philadelphia without knowing all the details surrounding the artifacts’ history. “We bought it because it looked very like the gold that was excavated at Troy,” Penn Museum Director Julian Siggers said.

Victims of forgery are "left in limbo" - The Art Newspaper

Art forgeries are once again in the news and getting more attention from law-enforcement agencies worldwide. But recent cases, including those of the German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi, the FBI investigation into art sold through the defunct New York-based Knoedler gallery, and the forgery of Indian Progressive pieces by the UK faker William Mumford, are leaving victims unsure of the legal position of works not examined in a court of law. The problem is that few of the fakes identified in forgery cases are ever recovered, and if they are, may not be considered by a judge as part of a trial. In the case of Mumford, just 40 of the 900 forgeries thought to have been made were brought before the court. Only 12 of the 58 fakes that police believe were made by Beltracchi were examined in his trial in Cologne in 2011. So what about the rest? And what can you do if you think you have a forged painting? At the moment, it seems it is up to the victims to try to extract reparations.

Growth in Online Art Market Brings More Fraud - NYTimes.com 

Over the last few years the Internet has broadened the art market far beyond the exclusivity and opaque jargon of its moneyed enclaves and has helped turn the slogan “art for everyone” into reality. But it has also become a sort of bazaar, where shoppers of varying sophistication routinely encounter all degrees of flimflammery, from the schemes of experienced grifters to the innocent mistakes of the unwitting and naïve. A recent study by statisticians at George Washington University and the University of California, Irvine, estimated that as many as 91 percent of the drawings and small sculptures sold online through eBay as the work of the artist Henry Moore were fake. 

Abu Dhabi Police foils illegal sale of Dh2.5 million antique coins - The National

Abu Dhabi Police have thwarted the illegal Dh2.5m sale of four antique gold coins and a fake.And while four of the five coins were genuine, the fifth - also made of gold - appeared to be from the time of the 7th-century Umayyad caliph Abdul Malik ibn Marouan, but was a fake, Maj Gen Mohammed Al Menhali, the head of police operations at Abu Dhabi Police, told the Arabic-language daily Al Ittihad. A real coin from that period would have been worth around US$3m (Dh11m), he noted.

Footnotes

The Curious Case of SpongeBob SquarePants Illustrator Todd White, Three Ninjas, and an Art Caper | Culture | Vanity Fair

A truly bizarre tale:

Artist Todd White seemingly had it all. With a multi-million-dollar art brand, collectors and clients ranging from Sylvester Stallone to Coca-Cola, and a burgeoning reputation in art-mad Britain, his days as lead character designer of SpongeBob SquarePants were but a distant memory. But, as David Kushner reports, when his confidante and gallerist Peggy Howell reported a burglary of his paintings at the hand of ninjas, things took a turn for the even stranger.

Theft of Dalí Drawing Was Incongruous in its Simplicity - NYTimes.com

The man who stole a drawing by the Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí on Tuesday wore only the most basic of disguises: that of an everyday gallery visitor, walking past the Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst works on display. And he brought only the most basic of tools for his heist: a black shopping bag. When he left the new Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue and escaped into a sunny afternoon, no one — not the security guard standing watch in the gallery, not the guard in the building’s lobby — realized that a thief was making his getaway. The loss of the drawing, “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio,” valued at $150,000, was a blow to the gallery, near East 77th Street, which has been open for only a month. Its high-society origins and high-concept exhibition have attracted much attention. Its owner is Adam Lindemann, a wealthy art collector and writer whose wife runs another gallery.

 And of course the painting was recovered after it was mailed back to the US from Greece.

To keep the looters away from De Soto site and Spanish mission, Ashley White came up with an elaborate ruse | Gainesville.com

“The artifacts, individually, are not very valuable monetarily, but historically they have tremendous value,” White said. But treasure hunters aren't easy to deter. To keep the looters away from the real treasures, White had to come up with an elaborate ruse. White created a phony archaeological dig on a distant part of his property near Orange Lake, complete with orange markers, wooden grids and strings methodically placed to give the illusion that important work was taking place there.

An account of ARCA's annual conference by Rebecca Junkemeier with SPI:

Here at SPI, we want to provide local communities with the entrepreneurial opportunities to create sustainable income from their cultural heritage; income that is dependent on the preservation of the site. SPI left Amelia with the conviction that focus on the local is imperative to success, and that, now more than ever, the development of local economies is instrumental in saving the world’s cultural heritage for future generations to study and enjoy.

Master forger comes clean about tricks that fooled art world for four decades | Art and design | The Observer

An extraordinary memoir is to reveal how a gifted artist managed to forge his way to riches by conning high-profile auctioneers, dealers and collectors over four decades. The book, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger, will be published next month and tells the story of Ken Perenyi, an American who lived in London for 30 years. The revelations within it are likely to spark embarrassment on both sides of the Atlantic.

U.S. returns stolen art worth millions to Italy | Reuters

The United States on Wednesday returned stolen art works worth millions of dollars to Italy, including two 2,300-year-old ceramic vases, a Roman sculpture and a Renaissance painting. The seven works, which Italian police said were illegally smuggled into the United States by organized crime groups specializing in stolen art, will now be returned to their owners and museums. "The recovery of these works of art was thanks to professional cooperation between law enforcement in Italy and the United States," said Italian Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi. "The recovery of art is an important chapter in our history of cooperation," he told a news conference at the U.S. embassy.

Footnotes

Krak des Chevaliers, a crusader castle in Syria is at risk

• The conflict in Syria has produced predictable damage to that nations heritage, including the armed occupation of fortresses, looting of sites, chipping away of mosaics, and other acts of cultural destruction.
• A well-reasoned case for the return of the Nefertiti bust.
• Turkey would like these objects returned from the Getty.
• Heritage sites in Mali are at risk according to UNESCO.
• The discovery rule and Steven Spielberg prevail in the Ninth Circuit.
• A Nazi-era restitution.
• Fund Italian culture or else.
• It seems the attention being paid to the ongoing looting at El-Hibeh has caused Egyptian authorities to take action.
• 18 jade objects stolen from Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

Footnotes

• One of the versions of the Scream will go up for auction, and may fetch $80 million. Any doubt that the thefts (and recoveries) of other versions increased its value?
• The grey lady discusses how forgery undid the Knoedler Gallery after 165 years.
• Another bronze theft, this one from the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. I always think its a shame how few classical bronzes survived the melting pot, but not even contemporary bronzes are safe now.
• An interesting personal note about the late Robert Hecht.
• The Houston Chronicle reports on Bob Wittman's involvement into an investigation into a stolen Renoir in Houston.
• Antiquities forgeries have been discovered in Italy, a consequence of an art trade shrouded in secrecy.
• And fakes of early photographs may have been discovered in France as well.
• Fisk University reminds challengers to its decision to sell half of its interest in the Stieglitz Collection that Arkansas and Tennessee are both in the South—where Georgia O'Keeffe wanted the works to go.
• An important discovery of a cultural relic from the recent past: Jamie Oliver found master tapes from Joy Division and New Order in the basement of a restaurant he is opening in Manchester.

Footnotes

"Le Marché" 

• A work by Camille Pissarro, stolen from France in 1981 is on its way back after a United States forfeiture proceeding (previous discussion here).
• Princeton has announced the return of six antiquities with questionable histories to Italy.
• Maya remains and objects were discovered in Belize during a construction project. 
• An investment art fraud scheme has been uncovered in Australia.
• Can nuclear physics determine whether a piece of art is genuine?
• Thieves have stolen 2 works of art from an Olympia, Washington art gallery by breaking and entering through a skylight.
• UNESCO has threatened to revoke world heritage status for Seville because of a decision to build a new 40-story building.

Footnotes

Will Rome's trash follow Hadrian outside the city centuries later?

• There are concerns over the proposed siting of a landfill near Hadrian's villa.
• In New Orleans a man was sentenced to two years in prison and $327,000 in restitution for selling forgeries of works by Clementine Hunter.
• Rick St. Hilaire summarizes the expected forfeiture of a painting,Cristo Portacroce Trascinato Da Un Manigoldo after the loaned work from Italy was seized, the work will be returned to the family who was dispossessed of the painting by the Nazis. 
• Yuck: A drunk Denver woman punched, damaged and urinated near the vicinity of a $30 million Clyfford Still painting.
• The 1866 wreck of the USS Narcissus in the mouth of Tampa Bay will become a Florida state archaeological preserve.
• Martin Kemp found the trial of five men in connection with Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder "deeply unsatisfying". Me too. 
• Creativity makes people feel uneasy.
• A Manhattan art gallery has offered a reward for stolen art.


• The Portable Antiquities Scheme, the voluntary program for reporting objects legally found in parts of the United Kingdom, has received attention for a racy brothel coin, called a spintria, or was it a game token?
• Finally, Tom King points out an interesting article (but no link) by Raimund Karl which describes an Austrian model of heritage management. I thought about posting a longer response and discussion, but sadly I've given up hope that the heritage advocacy sites on the interwebs can offer any useful forum for discussion. I've made a peer-reviewed case for what I think is best after looking at the law, policy and results. 

Footnotes

Defendants allege the FBI induced them to steal this Monet and four other works in 2007

• In France thieves are on trial this week for the theft of four works in Nice, previously mentioned here. The defendants are arguing that Bob Wittman, then an FBI agent, induced them into committing the theft to implicate other defendants.
• RAND Europe has publicly published online, "Assessing the illegal trade in cultural property from a public policy perspective", a report by by Siobhán Ní Chonaill, Anaïs Reding, and Lorenzo Valeri.
• Libyan authorities have recovered small Roman antiquities which were recovered from Khadafi's troops fleeing Tripoli.
• It is not often archaeologists can excavate a site with the contemporaries present, but the "Great Escape" tunnel has been excavated, and two British Veterans have returned to the site. 
• A man who used the sale of a Corot painting to defraud an art collector has been sentenced to six years in prison. 
• And a man who stole hundreds of military medals from a New Zealand Army Museum has been sentenced to three years in prison.
• A Kandinsky watercolor will go on sale despite the fact it is the subject of a Nazi-era restitution claim.
• Rick St. Hilaire summarizes the Import Restrictions recently put in place to restrict the import of certain objects from Greece under the CPIA framework.

Footnotes

The Statue of Liberty turns 125 today, pictured here under construction in Frederick Auguste Bartholdi's Paris workshop. 

• Another Pompeii wall collapse? I'm skeptical of English-language reporting of what happens in Italy generally, but doubly so after reading Mary Beard's account of a wall-collapse in Pompeii that didn't actually collapse. Berlusconi screws up enough with out inventing things right?
• Maxwell Anderson will be leaving Indianapolis for the Dallas Museum of Art.
• Recovered 90 years later: "Fisherman's Daughter" by Jules Breton, stolen during World War I, has been returned to France from New York. 
• Probably not a good sign for his partner in crime: Jason Savedoff, the 24 year-old assistant to Barry Landau, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal valuable documents signed by Lincoln, Napoleon, and others.
• "Government. Arts. Agency."
•  Deaccessioning art to another museum: The Atwater Kent Museum sold a work to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sounds like a reasonable solution to the slew of deaccessions. 
• Serbia is the new haven for stolen art: two Picassos recovered there. 
• The LCCHP is sponsoring an underwater cultural heritage conference Nov. 3 in Washington D.C.
• At the Menil in Houston on Nov. 3 there will be a roundtable discussion of cultural heritage and participatory stewardship.
• The Four Corners region antiquities investigation has produced a number of probation sentences, no prison sentences and 3 suicides. The assistant U.S. attorneys would have had a hard time making a stronger case with the suicide of the informant. SAFE argues the non-custodial sentences are an unjust result, arguing for stiffer penalties. But in the current era of austerity, when some authorities are under budget constraints, sometimes even making the baffling decision not to prosecute domestic violence cases, who will pay to prosecute the cases? 

Footnotes

The Cardo Maximus in Apamea in Syria

• Widespread looting in Libya has not taken place, but perhaps not enough attention has been paid to Syria, where several sites in the city of Apamea have been vandalized and looted according to Syria's news agency.
• The Minneapolis Institue of Arts announced last week that it will repatriate a "star" krater to Italy which appeared in Medici polaroids, and was acquired in 1983 by Robin Symes.
• The Getty will repatriate two objects to Greece, unsolicited. Does that mean James Cuno is 'kindler and gentler'? David Gill thinks this "makes sense", and as usual has more questions (but no answers).
• ARIS announces a global art fund (Artemundi) will use title insurance as "part of its standard risk management protocol".
• Applications for the VLA's Art & Law Residency Program are due Oct. 17.
• The story of Montreal's art-theft unit:

On a two-week trip to Paris, Mr. Lacoursière found himself loitering in the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre, which were in so many ways the exact opposite of his beat at home where he toured the dirtiest corners of the human psyche. He returned to Montreal, vowing to find a way to incorporate his long-time love of art with his police work. So he enrolled in an art history night course at a local university.

•  Lee Rosenbaum is fired up that the city of Denver is selling four works by Clyfford Stills but did not give public institutions enough time to purchase the works (here's my remedy). 
• A Goya found, under a Goya.
• A Renoir has been stolen here in Houston.
• A terrific profile of Sada Mire who is uncovering a rich array of rock art in Somalia:

She has a fellowship in the department of art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and is head of the department of antiquities in the breakaway territory of Somaliland, in the north-west region of Somalia. She is the only archaeologist working in the region.

It's a remarkable journey for a girl who fled Mogadishu in 1991, aged 14, as Somalia descended into the chaos of civil war. Driving her forward is the urge to uncover and preserve a cultural heritage that has been systematically looted, both in colonial times and more recently by warlords trading national heritage for guns.

Footnotes

The Annunciation to Joachim, Lucas Cranach the Elder, once oned   owned by Baron Herzog Mor Lipot Herzog

• A Nazi-era suit will proceed: A US District Court Judge for the District of Columbia has denied Hungary's motion to dismiss a lawsuit to reclaim works once owned by Jewish banker Baron Mor Lipot Herzog (previously discussed here).
• The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science has discovered a Nazi-looted painting in a group of loaned paintings.
• Libyan archaeologists are inspecting heritage sites for signs of damage during the conflict.
• It is the first time I go there since the war, Kadhafi's troops were inside and I want to know what happened," said Fadel Ali Mohammed, Libya's freshly appointed minister for antiquities.Setting out from the Tripoli hotel that has become his temporary home, the 62-year-old -- a doctor in archaeology and Greek philology -- begins the drive west to Sabratha, one of Libya's most treasured archaeological sites.Despite multiple checkpoints armed by young volunteer militiamen, it only takes 90 minutes to get there. But it is an anxious 90 minutes for the man who is now in charge of protecting Libya's past.

•  Judith Dobrzynski discovers a work deaccessioned by the Brooklyn Museum in 1967 on temporary display at the Met, and Donn Zaretsky wants to know how this fits with the public trust.
• What is the difference between viewing St. Cuthbert's Gospel at Durham Cathedral or in the British Library?
• The fundamental (and I use the term advisedly) challenge of modern society is how people deal not just with cultural differences, but with worldviews that are incompatible to the extent that they seem life-threatening—and require life-taking. Without over-estimating the impact that preserving historic objects can have, this joint custody agreement is a small contribution to making the world a safer, more civilised place.

• How do you trust an art dealer?
• The only way I know is to do your homework and spend time talking with them. Before you go to a show look at the list of participants and then go to their web sites. See what they offer and what sort of reputation they have. Are they considered true experts in the field/fields they deal in? Do other people in the art world look to them for advice? Have they had any serious legal issues? Do they deal in a wide range of items or do they have a focus … I personally find it hard to believe that any one dealer can be a true expert in all periods of art and antiques. Those who have a tighter focus will probably be better versed in the works they sell. If you take a little time doing your due diligence, your show experience will be much more rewarding.
• What a theft! Now it seems the theft of the Mona Lisa over 100 years ago is being credited with creating modern museums.
• Do we want someone controlling the fate of $30 billion in art 60 years after his death?
• A painting by Rubens stolen a decade ago in Belgium has been recovered in Greece.

Footnotes

Google Earth Image of Leptis Magna, one of Libya's Important Heritage Sites

• UNESCO is warning the art and antiquities trade to be "particularly wary of objects from Libya in the present circumstances".


• Is art theft on the rise? 


• Prof. Jen Kreder has a number of strong criticisms of the Department of Justice with respect to its positions on Nazi-era restitution suits in an Op-Ed for the Detroit Free Press. 


• More on the long-running dispute between George Grosz's successors and the Museum of Modern Art.


• How many Degas sculptures are authentic? Are Degas heirs "rubber-stamping" these works for a share of the proceeds?


• Two very different reports of a recent appearance by representatives from the FBI's Art Theft Program at a gathering of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association. One report in the Santa Fe New Mexican said David Kice "drew laughs" when he asked for help identifying illicit artifacts. Another AP report says the laughs were drawn when the FBI revealed it paid $2,800 for four prayer stones which would have been lucky to fetch $100. Dace Hyatt argued the government "was clearly inducing felony charges with an erroneous value system". Another account from Kate Fitz Gibbon suggests the AP article had a more accurate depiction.


• Museum staff in Baghdad are really struggling to create an inventory of the Baghdad Museum's collection—what is not mentioned is that many museums have not completed a complete inventory, it is expensive and time-consuming.

Footnotes

• LS Lowry paintings stolen in a violent 2007 theft have been recovered.
• A discussion of the legal standing of SLAM to contest the Government's civil forfeiture. And lest we get too critical of SLAM for asking for assistance from the Missouri Highway Patrol, that likely would have been the conduit to check Interpol's stolen art database.
• Charged with 16 felonies. Pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in stolen artifacts. Another defendant receives probation sentence in the Four Corners antiquities case.
• Herakles looted torso will be reunited with his lower half after the MFA in Boston agreed to return it to Turkey.
• A reminder that collecting antiquities is not a new endeavor.
• Twelve people have been arrested in Spain for looting archaeological sites with metal detectors.
• And coins legally discovered by metal detectorists in Spain and recorded in the PAS have led to a discovery of a Roman town west of Devon, further than many had believed the Romans to have settled.
• Archaeologists have discovered how to hack a kinect to conduct 3D scans of objects and buildings.
• Two men have been arrested for selling illicit antiquities in the Istanbul bazaar.

Footnotes

Art connoisseurs have re-discovered this work by Van Dyck in Paris

• Alice Walton's quest to put more art in Arkansas.
• NATO won't comment on whether it would bomb Roman ruins in Libya if there were targets nearby.
• Can an artist forge himself?
• More Freedom of Information Act requests by the Cultural Policy Research Institute, this one seeks information about whether U.S. Customs and Border Protection were "engineered" into an MOU with Egypt.
• Should we care about the personal lives of great artists?
• A new documentary examines art and its role in resistance.
• Can't we have both art and history?
• A Texas legislator aims to make it tougher for scrap metal thieves to resell stolen metal (many of whom target public art).

Footnotes

The Bost Arch in 1970

• An op-ed by Ann Marlowe in the New York Times describes the difficulty in preserving sites like this in Afghanistan.
• A Mexican court has ruled that a Frida Kahlo archive may be authentic.
• Jeanne Redd has brought suit against the Federal government alleging abusive treatment caused her husband to commit suicide.
• A nine year prison sentence has been handed down to a dealer of counterfeit art in Chicago.
• The AIA has condemned the Smithsonian's planned display of material from a wreck excavated off the coast of Indonesia, previously discussed here.
• The long effort devoted to preserving one of America's first Free Black Communities in Brooklyn.
• Bulgaria, perhaps the third-richest nation in Europe in terms of ancient heritage sites has "allowed their destruction."
• A dispute over the authenticity of works by Jean Cocteau pits a new Cocteau Museum against Pierre Berge.
• The CPAC will meet in June to evaluate the Memorandums of Understanding with Bolivia, Mali, and Guatemala.

Footnotes

The 2nd Century AD frieze has a title history which precedes the 1970 UNESCO Convention by 194 years

• Sotheby's will auction this Roman marble sarcophagus on June 8 in New York. As the 'Chasing Aphrodite' twitter feed noted, its provenance is pretty solid—it was purchased in 1776 by the first marquess of Landsdowne and was displayed in the ballroom of the Landsdowne House
• A symposium in Turkey discusses art theft from Istanbul's mosques.
• Antiquities seized by Customs officials in Sharjah have been put up for display in the UAE.
• A flaw with the UNESCO system: a Palestinian request to have the Church of the Nativity named a heritage site has been denied because Palestine is not a member of the UN.
• Criminal penalties for graffiti are increasing as the esteem for the form grows.
• RealKulturPolitik: Russia has banned art loans to the U.S. to voice their concern over a separate court ruling.
• The severed head of the patron saint of the "French disease" (as the Victorians called it) will go up for auction next week.
• Three views of museums.
• Who faked 200 Giacomettis?
• Metal detectors help archaeologists discover an 1863 military post in Oregon.
• A chunk of Bury St. Edmunds for sale on Ebay.

Footnotes

• The slow and difficult effort to rebuild L'Aquila
• Interpol will publish photos of missing Egyptian artefacts, an important step which means these objects will now also be subject to the Art Loss Register's checks, if they weren't already.
• Antique coins have been stolen from Cairo University's faculty of archaeology.
• Romania has recovered 232 objects, including a gold bracelet and other objects which had been stolen from the archaeological site of Sarmisegetusa.
• Ten works which are perpetually damaged.
• More on the Icon-smuggling ring discovered in London.
• An arrest has been made in the case of a tapestry stolen in 2000.
• Will new databases reveal more Nazi-era spoliation claims? The International Research Portal will join the state archives of several nations in one location.
• An antiquities smuggling case in McAllen, Texas.
• Damien Huffer discusses recent examples of looting and vandalism in the Southwest.
• Objects seized in Houston are returned to Peru. The items were worth approximately $43,000 and included 4th century pottery, stone sculpture, and an 18th-century manuscript.
• More settlements at the Leopold Museum with Nazi-era claimants.
• An interview with Ralph Frammolino and Jason Felch.

Footnotes

Häuser mit bunter Wäsche (Vorstadt II), by Egon Schiele

• The Leopold Museum in Vienna is deaccessioning a cityscape by Egon Schiele to raise the money to pay the settlement to the heirs of Lea Bondi Jaray over the disposition of Portrait of Wally.
• A 500 year-old Nuremberg Chronicle has appeared in Salt Lake, it had been gathering dust in an attic for decades, or so the undisclosed seller has claimed. One wonders if the actual story is a good deal more complicated.
• A review of a new human history of the Mediterranean notes the study of the island-city of Motya in Sicily has been delayed by looting: 

Motya is just four kilometres square, yet only five per cent has been excavated to date. Archaeological investigations collapsed in 1987 owing to Mafia complicity in pilfering antiquities. In the nearby Sicilian town of Marsala (famous for its fortified wine) a small museum nevertheless displays artefacts. Marsla is incidentally named after the Arab Mars al Allah, "Harbour of God", after the Saracen invasion of the western Mediterranean in 831.

• What can be done to protect Egypt's monuments? Kent Weeks argues:

Here’s a list on which most Egyptologists agree: Consult with local and international agencies and specialists to develop and implement long-term management plans. Train on-site inspectors and give them greater responsibility. Design better security for sites and museums. Allocate more money for site conservation and documentation. Take a strong stand against commercial and political interests that threaten the monuments.

Footnotes

Medici, Getty, BP: Are museums run on "tainted" money?

• A Q&A with Quebec's art crime unit.
• Officials from Egypt and Iraq met this week to discuss protection of archaeological heritage.
• A new play documenting the theft of the Mona Lisa.
• Shelling on the Thai/Cambodia border damages ancient Khmer temples. 
• Should foreign archaeologists, museums and others working in Egypt had plans in place in Egypt to secure sites in the event of political unrest?
• A museum in New Zealand installs a radio tracking system to boost security.
• Swedish artists want tax incentives for the arts.
• An account of the FBI Art Crime Team.

Footnotes

A Rothko has been found, Christie's expects to auction it for $18 million

• Hmm. A 'new' 7-ft Marc Rothko?
• Palm tree justice realized: an Egyptian court jailed five officials over the theft of the Van Gogh painting last summer.
• Salzberg's Museum of Modern Art will hand over a 1915 painting by Klimt called "Litzlberg am Attersee" to the Canadian descendant of the previous Jewish owner. The work was seized in 1941.
• The evilest art dealer?
• Italian antiquities were seized at the Swiss border and a curious apulian fishplate at looting matters.
• The LAPD's Art Theft Detail interviewed by Catherine Sezgin.
• Securing Egypt's ancient treasures.
• Spain recovers paintings by Greco and Goya.
• Budget cuts may signal a decrease in historic preservation in the U.S.
• Jordan has a new online antiquities database.