Meso-American/South American Cache of Antiquities seized in Munich

News broke yesterday in Germany of a cache of antiquities from Central and South America seized by German authorities and through the efforts of Interpol. The large number of antiquities (cult objects, masks, etc.) were seized from a warehouse in Munich. The estimated market value of the recovered antiquities is approximately 100 million dollars. The cache is being claimed by a Costa Rican art collector. An audio interview (in German) with a police-reporter of the Federal Republic, hyperlinked to another version of the report here, gives us some more information: apparently the Costa Rican art collector also arranged for transport of the antiquities from the Americas to Germany via Spain. At present the reports are rather vague, but hopefully further coverage will reveal the details of this case. For example, was the cache meant for an auction or sale in Munich? Were other parties involved?

Often times we focus on the plunder of cultural objects from the classical world (at least in the blogs and academic journals I read most often, which are admittedly primarily devoted to that part of the world), but this event reminds that the plunder of cultural heritage is a global issue affecting everyone. There is also a thriving international demand for Pre-Columbian, Native American, and American historical artifacts as well, and the ethical concerns and "the material and intellectual consequences" are the same.

A New Resource for the Study of Applied Numismatics

The systematic and comprehensive study of coin finds from recorded material contexts can be (and has been) called by a myriad of names: "Fundnumismatik," "Coins in Context," "Contextual Numismatics," "Numismatic Archaeology/Archaeological Numismatics," "Applied Numismatics," etc. There are a relatively small, but growing, number of specialists in this field and most of them seem to be located in Britain and Germany. An important new resource for those specialists is certain to be the new the Applied Numismatics List. I received an announcement of the list today from a colleague. It has been organized by Kris Lockyear and some other numismatists to help bring various scholars working on related topics into closer contact. According the informal announcement I received, the purpose of the list will be to provide a forum "where we could swap information, reports, data, ask questions regarding databases, statistics and all that sort of thing." I urge anyone who has an active interest in the academic study of coin finds, economy, and other fields that make use of applied numismatics to join and contribute to this resource. Hopefully, it will serve as a important venue for the exchange of information, resources, and serve as a venue to discuss developing methodologies within the field.

The Illicit Antiquities Trade in Bulgaria

Anyone who studies the trade in classical antiquities knows that the Balkan countries supply much of the 'fresh' material on the market today. Last week, in preparation for a lecture, I was doing some more research on the coin trade and happened across this interesting publication on the internet, Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends, which was published by the Center for the Study of Democracy in 2007. At approximately 200 pages this document addresses many illicit trades in Bulgaria, but the last chapter (pp. 177ff.) addresses the antiquities trade and also comments on the ancient coin trade in particular. The chapter on the antiquities trade is available as an individual download as well, but one would have to check the first pages whole document for citation information. The chapter, as indeed does the entire document, makes occasional allusions to the involvement of some corrupt politicians in the antiquities trade and makes some interesting observations on trade networks and practices. In my opinion, it makes for a very interesting read and perhaps I'll have some more comments in the future.

While we're on the subject of the destruction of Bulgaria's cultural heritage to supply the inventories of European and American dealers, it is worth mentioning that Bulgaria also seems to attract tourists who travel to the country to treasure hunt while on holiday. A colleague provided me with a citation to a TZ-Online article (auf Deutsch), which talks about two German treasure hunters who were recently caught prospecting for antiquities in Bulgaria: "Zwei deutsche Schatzsucher festgenommen," TZ-Online, 24.04.08.