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Buying your illicit coins and looted antiquities from seemingly legitimate online retailers like ebay may be no guarantee of authenticity of the object or legitimacy of the seller either. By some estimates as many as 90% of the antiquities traded online on sites like ebay or unclbobsusedantiquities.com are outright fakes. How can this be? According to Professor Charles S Stanish, Director, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, the looters simply find it more profitable to manufacture multiple fakes than dig up genuine relics. In a 2009 article for the online magazine ARCHAEOLOGY, published by the Archaeological Institute of America, Stanish wrote: “many of the primary “producers” of the objects have shifted from looting sites to faking antiquities. I’ve been tracking eBay antiquities for years now, and from what I can tell, this shift began around 2000, about five years after eBay was established.” For those intent on ignoring the 1970 UNESCO Convention then, it seems to be a case of buyer beware.
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Interpol Works of Art Crime Area Webpage: http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Works-of-art/ Works-of-art
UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ ID=13039&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201. html FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/ law-enforcement-bulletin/march-2012/protectingcultural-heritage-from-art-theft Greece wins Swiss court ruling over ancient coin. By COSTAS KANTOURIS, Associated Press Monday, 16 January 2012 10:20
While many dealers, from major auction houses to online dealers, and their customers are legitimate and follow the law, more needs to be done 145
j o u r n a l
Elsewhere on the internet there are many small time dealers who sell everything from coins to artifacts to art with little or no apparent concern for provenance as defined under the 1970 UNESCO convention. On May 18, 2012 an AFP news story noted that Italian police announced that they were investigating more than 70 people for trading thousands of looted archaeological artifacts on Internet auction site eBay. Italian police noted that they had seized more than sixteen-thousand artifacts ranging from bronze and silver coins, rings and ceramic vases Notes and Links in addition to 10 metal detectors.
O n l i n e
to track down and prosecute those who profit from the destruction of our collective heritage. A couple of recently announced online initiatives are promising to aid law enforcement agencies and the heritage communities do just that. The University of Glasgow’s project with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, Trafficking Culture, seeks to create an online encyclopedia of looted sites and artifacts. Similarly WikiLoot, founded by the chaps behind the chasingaphrodite.com website aims to create an open source web platform for the publication and analysis of primary source records and photographs documenting the illicit trade in looted antiquities.
A n c i e n t P l a n e t
in northern Greece and sold at auction in Switzerland...” Greek and Swiss officials believe that the coin was sold back and forth among a number of offshore companies before being sold in Switzerland in 2009 to an unidentified collector for $106,000.