The ring, which depicts a bull-leaping scene, was initially dismissed as fake before its authenticity was established by a team of Culture Ministry experts.
The scene depicted on the 15th century BC artifact also includes a lion and a tree.
Source: Kathimerini [January 12, 2015]
“The artifacts were discovered hidden in cheap vases during an inspection of a shipping container from Alexandria, Egypt, at the Port of Valencia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast,” said Director-General of Guardia Civil Arsenio Fernandez de Mesa.
The ancient Egyptian artifacts, with a total value of between 200,000 and 300,000 euros (U.S. $225,000-339,000), were recovered as part of a comprehensive crackdown launched by agents from European law enforcement authorities in 14 countries to prevent looting, theft and illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts.
The Spanish police showed the press 36 of the recovered Egyptian artifacts including “a majestic bust of Sekhmet, the ancient Egyptian warrior goddess, worth an estimated 100,000 euros ($125,000),” Spanish Police Captain Javier Morales was quoted as saying by news24.
Also among the most valuable recovered artifacts is a statue of Isis, ancient Egyptian goddess of magic, and a vase covered in hieroglyphics, said Morales.
“During the comprehensive operation, dubbed ‘Aureus,’ the agents carried out checks on 6,244 individuals, 8,222 vehicles, 27 vessels, as well as 2,352 inspections at antique and art dealers, auction houses and secondhand outlets. Checks were also stepped up at airports, land borders and ports in Europe,” according to Europol.
Most of Egypt’s major archaeological sites have been targeted for looting since the 2011 uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of ancient Egyptian artifacts, most of which were obtained from illicit digging activities, are now flooding the global markets, auction houses and electronic commerce websites.
In spite of the Egyptian government’s efforts to track smuggled artifacts inside Egypt and in auction houses abroad, the issue is still unsettled.
“During the past four years, Egypt has recovered over 1,600 artifacts and is currently working on other cases in many European countries,” Ministry of Antiquities’ Museums Sector head Ahmed Sharaf previously told The Cairo Post.
It is estimated that around $3 billion in Egyptian antiquities have been looted since the outbreak of the January 25 Revolution in 2011, according to the International Coalition to Protect Egyptian Antiquities, a U.S.-based initiative partnered with Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry.
Author: Rany Mostafa | Source: The Cairo Post [January 29, 2015]
According to an announcement of the Culture Ministry, the coins were found in the luggage of a Greek citizen travelling by car to Munich and seized by the German police.
Most of them are made of copper and date back to the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and post-Roman eras.
It should be noted that several members of an antiquities smuggling ring that was dismantled in March 2012 were involved in the case.
Source: Protothema [January 24, 2015]
Police estimated the value of the 5,361 vases, kraters, bronze statues and frescoes at about 50 million euros ($58 million). The works, from the 8th century B.C. to the 3rd century, were laid out Wednesday at the National Roman Museum and may go on public display.
Carabineri Gen. Mariano Mossa says it was "by a long shot the biggest recovery in history in terms of the quantity and quality of archaeological treasures."
They were found during an investigation into Basel-based art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, accused by prosecutors of being part of a huge trafficking network.
Source: Associated Press [January 21, 2015]
Currently the stables and part of the grounds of the Abbey are rented to a private person who runs a restaurant and holds large weddings and receptions within the grounds of the Abbey that continue late at night. This has been ongoing in excess of 20 years and it has not been duly regulated by the authorities.
There have been alterations and extensions to the historic buildings, which compromised the aesthetic and physical integrity of the historic look of the Abbey.
Currently the proprietor of the said restaurant is in the process of building a sewerage treatment plant approximately 15 meters away from the foundations of the Abbey, which is already precariously positioned.
There is visible erosion caused by weather conditions over the centuries and the Abbey itself has not had any restoration.
A huge crack has appeared on the western wall right above where the proprietor of the restaurant placed a generator. The supporting wall around the foundations collapsed in places. The other walls are also visibly in urgent need of repair.
A conscientious group of citizens has set up a Facebook group for raising awareness of this unacceptable use and neglect of Cyprus' national heritage by both the authorities and the proprietor of the restaurant.
The group has also set up an online petition (in Turkish) to submit to the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) parliament calling for the removal of the sewerage plant and to investigate the terms and conditions via which the lease has been granted.
Author: Fatma Kaya | Source: Balabayis'a Aritma Tesisi Yapilamaz [January 12, 2015]
Archaeologists on Thursday were assessing a collection of gold jewelry discovered by police in a hidden compartment in the ceiling of a home in Imathia, northern Greece, to ascertain whether they are of historical value.
The 59-year-old resident of the home, which was raided by officers acting on a tip-off, has been placed under arrest and may face charges of illegal possession of antiquities if the items are authenticated, the Greek Police said.
Among the items found stuffed into a hollowed-out compartment in a foam ceiling tile are gold necklaces and earrings, as well as leaf-shaped fragments that resemble the ornamentation used in Alexander-era crowns and ceremonial wreaths. They also found five small bundles containing semi-precious stones.
Source: Kathimerini [January 08, 2015]
The British Museum is considering three further overseas loans from the Elgin Marbles – but a reluctance to entertain the sculptures’ return to Greece is set to provoke renewed anger in Athens.
Last year the British Museum allowed part of the Marbles to leave the country for the first time when it lent the headless statue of Ilissos, a Greek river god, to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Greece, which is seeking to reclaim ownership of the 2,500-year-old sculptures removed from the Parthenon in Athens in the 19th century by Lord Elgin, described the Russia loan as “provocative”.
A current request from the British Museum for a key antiquity from the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens for a forthcoming exhibition on classical sculpture has been delayed, in what is being seen as retaliatory move by the Greek authorities.
The work has been requested for the show, “Defining Beauty: the Body in ancient Greek Art”, which opens in March.
The delay is ascribed to “tensions” with the Greek government, despite friendly curatorial relations between the two institutions – the British Museum currently has 24 items on loan to the Cycladic museum.
However the chances of securing the loan in time for the exhibition may be harmed by the news that the British Museum is seriously entertaining bids for further Elgin Marbles loans to museums outside of Greece.
“Three serious bids are being considered,” The Art Newspaper reports, including one informal loan request made before the Hermitage deal was revealed.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Berlin’s museums and the Louvre in Paris are the kind of institutions which “stand the best chance of success” when formal loan requests are submitted, the art title suggested.
The British Museum would expect any museum to which it lends the Parthenon sculptures to “be generous in responding to loan requests” made in return by the London body. Requests for single sculptures will be more favourably received, it is suggested. Bids are also expected from the UK’s regional museums which could expect huge interest in displaying items from the famous collection.
The Museum confirmed that further loans from the Elgin sculptures are being considered. A spokesman said: “Museums around the world have shown interest in requesting to loan from our set of Parthenon sculptures, and we always welcome these conversations. The Trustees will consider any request for any part of the collection to be borrowed and then returned, subject to the usual considerations of condition and fitness to travel and this has always been made clear to the world.”
Further Marbles loans will inflame tensions with Athens. Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, described the loan of the Parthenon sculpture to the Hermitage as “an affront to the Greek people”.
Some of the Marbles will be moved from their permanent display to the temporary exhibition gallery for the British Museum’s March show, including the pediment sculptures of Ilissos, which will be returning from Russia, Iris and Dionysos.
However time is running out to strike an agreement with the Museum of Cycladic Art for the work that the London museum is seeking. The British Museum spokesman said: “We have requested to borrow one object from Greece and await the official response. The Museum has very positive working relationships with colleagues in Greece and lends extensively to museums in Greece including 24 objects on loan to two temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.”
The Athens museum declined a request to comment. A source said: “The museum is happy in principle to lend the work but the Greek government is stalling on the paperwork.”
Greece refuses to recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the sculptures, which make up about 30 per cent of the surviving decoration from the Parthenon.
Author: Adam Sherwin | Source: The Independent [January 06, 2015]
A glass dome 10 meters high and 20 meters in diameter is being built to cover ancient rock engravings that have been at risk of significant erosion on the island of Kamenny in northwest Russia.
The petroglyphs can now only be seen by organized tours and scientists. In the meantime archaeologists will continue searching for the answer to the main riddle posed by the rock engravings: Why did prehistoric man create them?
The Kanozero petroglyphs in Murmansk Region were discovered relatively recently. In the summer of 1997, researchers from a local museum found carvings on the rocks on the island of Kamenny. The ancient artists depicted animals, birds, fish, household items, religious symbols and scenes from life such as a love triangle, a hunt and a family. The scientists have also discovered several even more enigmatic sketches including a bird of prey with five-talon feet, a large figure of a sorcerer and a flying crane.
The paradox of the situation is that scientists had been visiting the island since the 1960s, yet none of them were aware that it was a major prehistoric site. Researchers simply thought that the carvings were contemporary, made by tourists visiting the island.
“It took a certain courage to declare that these engravings were ancient,” recalls Vadim Likhachev, one of the first scientists to study the Kanozero petroglyphs. “We took it upon ourselves to substantiate that theory. A radiocarbon analysis of a nearby fire site showed that the carvings were made no later than 3,000-4,000 B.C.”
There is one more reason why it took so long to discover the carvings: most of them were covered with moss and turf. Once it was removed, scientists discovered an additional 100 carvings. However, in just 15 years, these unique petroglyphs that had been preserved by nature for thousands of years were pushed to the brink of obliteration. Each spring, ice melting from the surface of the rocks was gradually erasing the images.
The situation was further exacerbated by tourists wearing running shoes. Even a tiny stone stuck in the sole of a sneaker could damage the carvings. The engravings were carved on soft rocks. It is easy to make carvings on them, but it is equally simple to erase them, too. Some visitors to the site tried to leave their imprint by adding their signatures and pictures to the petroglyphs.
In 2012, the site was visited by Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia at the time. He was so impressed by the ancient carvings that he promised to allocate 15 million rubles of his own money towards their preservation. The dome to protect the petroglyphs was built in fall 2014. It consists of a metal frame and polycarbonate, the same material that roofs for swimming pools and greenhouses are made of.
“It was very hard work,” says Vladimir Perevalov, director of the Kanozero Petroglyphs Museum. “The island is surrounded by water and it was impossible to get a crane there as the rocky shores are seven meters high. The builders had to get heavy metal frames and glass all the way up there.”
The dome may have to be further reinforced in the summer. According to Perevalov, there is a risk that it may cave in with time as lichen may spread underneath it. For the time being, experts are monitoring how the dome will survive the winter.
The ancient petroglyphs can now be seen by appointment only. Tourists come to Kanozero despite the fact that most of the carvings are not available for viewing and can be seen only in restricted lighting.
The scientists have not yet been able to ascertain why the prehistoric inhabitants of the North made these rock carvings. Earlier they thought they were a depiction of scenes from everyday life. However, recently another theory has been gaining currency: that the petroglyphs had a spiritual character.
“The carvings may depict the rituals of prehistoric people,” says Likhachev. “The locations where there are many engravings may have been ancient open-air shrines.”
The petroglyphs may have been used to communicate with the spirits of ancestors or in healing rituals. Archeologists are now collecting data to try and recreate what may have been an ancient religious system.
Author: Yelena Bozhkova | Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines [January 06, 2015]
More than 5,000 ancient coins found in a Buckinghamshire field are an "unprecedented" find, the county's keeper of archaeology has said.
A member of the Weekend Wanderers Metal Detecting Club discovered the 11th Century coins buried in a field near Aylesbury four days before Christmas.
Brett Thorn from Bucks County Museum said it was the largest hoard of Saxon coins ever found in the county and the second largest in the UK.
"It just doesn't happen," he said.
Paul Coleman, from Southampton, was taking part in a dig in the Padbury area on 21 December when he found the coins from the late Anglo Saxon, early Norman period, depicting the heads of kings Ethelred the Unready and Canute.
"I saw one shiny disk," he told BBC News. "It was reflecting in the sky and I immediately knew it was a coin, you just know. So I bent down to pick the coin up and as I could focus down in the hole I could see lots of circular shapes behind it. Club spokesman Peter Welch said the coins, which were buried in a lead bucket, had "looked almost uncirculated, like they were straight from a mint".
Mr Thorn said the find was "massive" and the largest find of Saxon coins since 1840 when about 7,000 were unearthed in Cuerdale, near Preston in Lancashire.
'Very significant'
"I was absolutely astounded," he said. "To give an idea of scale, people normally find between five and 20 [Saxon] coins. We have about 4,000 Roman coins in the Bucks County Museum and only 30 Saxon ones, so it is very significant both nationally and for the county, it is just unprecedented."
The coins, which feature at least two kings, will be cleaned and examined by the British Museum to establish which mint they came from.
"Until they are cleaned and dated [to find the oldest] we can't begin to find out why they were collected or why they were carefully wrapped and very definitely hidden," said Mr Thorn.
A coroner must rule if they are "treasure" under the Treasure Act.
Mr Thorn could not comment on their estimated value but said if the museum decided, in conjunction with the British Museum, to acquire them "it would be a major fundraising effort".
The largest UK hoard of Anglo Saxon treasure was about 1,600 items, including helmet parts and processional crosses.
It was found in a Staffordshire field in July 2009 and valued at £3.285m.
Source: BBC News Website [January 03, 2015]
In the biggest shake-up of arts and culture of modern times, Matteo Renzi, the Prime Minister, has announced that the Government is to run advertisements in the Economist on January 9 to recruit new administrators "because we want to have the best directors in the world".
The leadership changes are part of a dramatic shake-up of the arts spearheaded by Dario Franceschini, the Culture Minister, in an attempt to make the country's galleries, museums and historic sites more profit-driven. Italy boasts nearly 3000 cultural sites that attract 77 million visitors a year.
The Colosseum alone draws 5.5 million of those.
Among the other "super museums" Franceschini wants to develop are the Borghese Gallery and National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Under a government decree, Franceschini hopes to generate earnings of more than 2 billion ($3.16 billion) in 2017, with further growth in the years to come. Italy's museums, galleries and archeological sites generated only 380 million in revenue in 2013, according to La Repubblica newspaper, and cost 350 million to operate.
The minister's office declined to comment on the new plans. But, according to La Repubblica, Franceschini wants to model Italian museums on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and add more restaurants, gift shops, guides and accessories that will attract more visitors and ultimately more profits.
He also wants to create 18 new regional offices with responsibility for the country's biggest artistic sites and grant more power to individual directors who run them. Italian media also said he was expected to appoint 12 new directors-general within his ministry who would manage specific sectors such as tourism, cinema and live theatre.
Franceschini has openly favoured other measures to increase tourism by "adding value" to the country's heritage and strongly supports corporate sponsorship.
He recently backed a move to bring live cultural events and concerts to ancient monuments such as the Colosseum because he said they needed to be "brought alive" for visitors from around the world.
In June, he launched a $50 million appeal to preserve the vast Domus Aurea palace built by Emperor Nero beside the Colosseum.
The Domus Aurea, loosely translated as the Golden House, is a sprawling complex of interconnecting dining halls, frescoed reception rooms and vaulted hallways on the hill opposite the ancient amphitheatre.
"The state has very limited resources unfortunately," said Franceschini at the time.
"This is an opportunity for a big company to sponsor an extraordinary project, which will capture the world's attention. It would be scandalous if no one comes forward."
Source: The New Zealand Herald [December 26, 2014]
In October, a Canadian woman made headlines around the world when she personally returned to hand back a 2,000-year old fragment she had stolen from Pompeii on her honeymoon 50 years ago.
The woman from Montreal, who is in her 70s, said the theft of the first century AD terracotta roof decoration had weighed on her conscience for decades.
Now Massimo Osanna, superintendent of the World Heritage-listed site, said that was not an isolated case and hundreds of archeological artefacts had been sent back to the museum in recent years, often with letters of apology written in different languages.
"We have been receiving hundreds of packages with hundreds of fragments now for years," Mr Osanna told the Italian daily, Il Messaggero.
"People write expressing regret, having realised they have made a terrible mistake and that they would never do it again and for this reason they are sending the stolen pieces back.
"But the most curious thing, from an anthropological point of view, are the letters that accompany the stolen fragments which reveal a cross-section of people worth studying."
Mr Osanna said that one particular fresco fragment that had been returned was crucial in the restoration of the Casa del Frutteto, or house of the orchard keeper, which collapsed in the 1980s.
He said the property was restored but after work was completed experts realised a piece of wall plaster was missing. He said it was returned to officials in March and would now be added.
Mr Osanna could not be contacted on Tuesday but said he would like to stage an exhibition to showcase the precious objects that had been returned.
Alessandro Pintucci, president of the Italian Confederation of Archeologists, welcomed the return of artefacts but warned more security was needed to protect valuable cultural sites and to prevent thefts where there were often too few controls.
Pompeii was buried by a sudden volcanic eruption of nearby Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. The preserved remains of the town attract around 2.5 million tourists every year.
Theft is a problem at ancient sites like Pompeii and the Colosseum in Rome, with tourists regularly trying to take "souvenirs" of their visits.
Last September a pair of American tourists were caught at Fiumicino airport in Rome with a stone artefact they had taken from Pompeii.
Author: Josephine McKenna | Source: Telegraph [December 24, 2014]
Most of the archaeological sites and features, which date back to prehistoric, classical, medieval and early modern periods, were discovered as a result of stringent planning permit monitoring procedures and field surveys carried out by MEPA and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH).
These newly unearthed archaeological sites include extensive areas characterised by a high density of prehistoric and classical pottery scatters, classical tombs, rural walls with long stretches of megaliths and ashlar stones, historic paths, ancient enclosures and water systems. Rural structures worthy of preservation such as giren (corbelled huts), apiaries and small vernacular buildings were also identified.
These archaeological sites and features are of local and national importance and contribute towards the understanding of the cultural landscape of the area.
A number of single chamber tombs and small catacombs have been recorded in Mġarr and Żebbiegħ. These tombs indicate a well established human presence in the classical period and could provide data for establishing the location of settlements and ancient roads in this period. The classical period features provide an archaeological landscape which is distinct from the prehistoric one, even if both overlap the same geographical space.
The undeveloped landscape in Mġarr and Żebbiegħ is characterized by the presence of extensive stretches of karstland, interspersed with small pockets of reclaimed agricultural areas. Within the surviving karstland, a large number of cart-rut systems and ancient quarries are recorded. An industrial site containing a kiln complete with water channels and a cistern has also been discovered. Some of these rock-cut archaeological features date as far back as the Bronze Age.
As expected, within such a primarily natural landscape characterized by active agricultural areas, one comes across a number of traditional rural structures in various degrees of conservation. These rural structures include old pathways, apiaries, giren, animal pens (some of which underground), cisterns, silos, post-holes, vine trenches and water channels which have a varying level of cultural or historic importance, but which collectively presents one of the most interesting agricultural and historically rural landscape in Malta.
A WWII shelter at Jubilee Square (Wesgħat il-Ġublew) and Fisher Street have also been scheduled by the Authority.
This area, with its substantial number of archaeological sites as well as rural and military heritage features is one of the most complete and complex rural and cultural landscapes in Malta with a history that spans over 7,000 years.
Source: Malta Today [December 23, 2014]
Charcoal dug up from the Mesolithic encampment at Blick Mead in the world heritage site, around one and a half miles from the stones, has been tested and dated to around 4,000 BC, archaeologists said.
A dig by the University of Buckingham has also unearthed evidence of possible structures, but more investigation is needed to see what the site contains. There is also evidence of feasting, including flints and giant bulls known as aurochs, the experts said.
They warn that the chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be damaged by the plans for the 1.8-mile tunnel as part of efforts to relieve the A303 bottleneck at Stonehenge.
The £2bn scheme would see the road put into a dual carriageway tunnel past Stonehenge, reducing congestion and improving the setting of the stones - giving the public greater access to the wider prehistoric landscape and benefiting wildlife, supporters say.
But archaeologist David Jaques, who made the discovery of the encampment, said: “The prime minister is interested in re-election in 140 days – we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived six thousand years ago.”
He added: “Blick Mead could explain what archaeologists have been searching for for centuries – an answer to the story of Stonehenge’s past.
“But our chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead.”
Source: The Guardian [December 19, 2014]
Italian bank Unicredit and the nonprofit foundation CariVerona signed a deal Wednesday with Verona's mayor to restore the Arena at a cost of 14 million euros ($17.5 million).
The project aims to secure the open-air Arena, the third-largest Roman-era amphitheater to survive antiquity, against infiltration from rain, which has damaged the seating areas, and upgrade its stairs and infrastructure like the electrical system.
The deal falls under the government's Art Bonus initiative adopted this year that gives donors a 65 percent tax credit.
With state funding to culture shrinking amid Italy's recession, Verona Mayor Flavio Tosi praised the Art Bonus program, saying that public resources "would never be sufficient to maintain treasures like ours."
The Arena is one of Verona's biggest tourist attractions and the venue for its famed summer opera festival. Some 1.5 million people enter the monument each year.
Tosi said the restoration work is expected take three years.
The mayor has another, more controversial project, in his sights: adding a roof to the 1st -century building. Tosi said he was awaiting approval from the culture ministry to solicit proposals.
Source: The Associated Press [December 19, 2014]
According to Environment, Energy and Climate Change Minister Yiannis Maniatis, the budget for the project amounts to 5,650,000 euros. The purpose of the initiative is to make improvements to the landscape surrounding this important archaeological site, including the addition of a herb garden with healing plants, new pathways for tourists, kiosks that will provide information about the history of medicine and promote local agricultural products with healing properties, etc.
Located in a small valley in the Peloponnesus, the shrine of Asclepius, comprises of three principal monuments, the temple of Asclepius, the Tholos and the Theatre – considered one of the purest masterpieces of Greek architecture – that date from the 4th century.
The vast site, with its temples and hospital buildings devoted to its healing gods, is a precious testimony to the practice of medicine in antiquity.
Source: Protothema [December 18, 2014]
In the tiny village of Dmanisi, a 1.8 million year-old human skull was recently discovered to the amazement of scientists. Nearby, a team of archaeologists from the National Museum of Georgia and the German Mining Museum (DBM) unearthed Bronze Era caves.
But the area is also rich in minerals. One site, known as Sakdrisi, is even believed to be home to a 5,000-year-old gold mine. The area was part of a concession of land the Georgian government allotted for the exploration of minerals in 1994.
In 2006, Georgia's Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection added the ancient gold mine site to its list of protected cultural monuments. The archaeological significance of the region had been a source of pride to the company that had the initial rights to mine the area. But that's now due to change. The Russian-owned company RMG bought the lease in 2012, and now plans to mine for gold.
The power of gold
RMG believes that rich gold deposits are directly under the ancient gold mine site and petitioned strongly for the government to lift Sakdrisi's protected status.
The Georgian Ministry of Culture formed a commission to study the site's status in May 2013. After one month of investigations, the commission ruled that no grounds exist to justify the protected status. In July 2013, the Ministry of Culture revoked its protected cultural heritage status.
The commission also held that the previous Georgian government had granted the protected status illegally, although they say they cannot find the 2006 documents that granted Sakdrisi permanent protection.
Thomas Stöllner, from DBM, challenged the commission's scientific qualifications though, requesting in an open letter that a new international committee be set up to test the site's archaeological signficance. So far the request has fallen on deaf ears.
Conflicts of interest
Gold exports are big business in Georgia. Sales of the precious metal overseas totalled 25.7 million euros ($35.5 million) in 2013, nearly 3 percent of the country's total export earnings.
RMG Commercial Director Solomon Tsabadze, a former Georgian Environment Ministry official, says the mining company provides 85 percent of the local budget through licensing fees and is the largest single employer in the region.
But civil society groups suspect collusion between the mining company and the government. Back in 1994 a Ministry of Environment official, Zurab Kutelia, issued the original mining permit for Sakdrisi. Today, he is the chairperson RMG's supervisory board and a company shareholder. On the other hand, other former mining company directors have become government officials too.
For Marine Mizandari, Georgia's former Deputy Minister of Culture, the ministry's decision to remove Sakdrisi from its list of protected sites is a serious setback.
"Why are we called the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, if we don't protect our monuments of culture?" she said to DW, adding that she believes she was dismissed from her post in the culture ministry for reasons related to Sakdrisi.
Citizens stand up
Mizandari is now at the forefront of the Public Committee to Save Sakdrisi, a coalition of civil society groups and students demanding that the Culture Ministry appoint a non-partisan group of international experts to re-evaluate Sakdrisi.
But her protest work is not yet getting results. At a recent meeting with university students on the issue, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili reiterated the commission's controversial findings, saying there was no proof gold had ever been mined in Sakdrisi. He stressed that RMG has already invested heavily in the Georgian economy and that protecting Sakdrisi would jeopardize the jobs of 3,000 people.
RMG has now been given the green light to begin excavating, and activists and students have organized protests against the Culture Ministry's decision in Tbilisi and near the mine site. One of their chief complaints is their exclusion from the decision-making process.
"You can stop anybody on the street and every Georgian will tell you they are proud of their history and culture," said Avtandil Ioseliani, representing Unanimity, a local NGO coalition. "I don't know what the Culture Ministry is doing, but they are not answering the questions society has."
Although Sakdrisi has lost its cultural heritage protected status, it is still an archaeological site, which prevents RMG from destroying it completely. The Culture Ministry has announced that it will appoint an independent group of archaeological experts to monitor the mining work done.
But mining opponents fail to see the logic in the policy, since the mining process requires blasting and the destruction of the ancient tunnels, they say.
Nikoloz Antidze, from the National Agency for Cultural Heritage and Preservation of Georgia, recalls how archaeological sites were ruined when BP laid an oil pipeline across the country in last 10 years.
"State interests often override archaeological interests all over the world, not just in Georgia," he told DW.
Source: Deutsche Welle [December 17, 2014]
The castles are the Tavolese manor near Florence and Sapia castle near Siena. From northern to southern Italy, dozens of private castles are on the market, according to a statement by Lionard Luxury Estate.
Prices range from 1,200 to 8,500 euros per square meter for mansions of great charm and prestige, perfectly maintained, some of which have already been fitted as hotels or farms.
''On our website alone we have 37 castles on sale, but there are over 70 across Italy in the portfolio'', said the CEO of Lionard Luxury Real Estate, Dimitri Corti.
High maintenance costs and growing fiscal pressure on real estate have convinced many owners, in many cases for many generations, to consider selling to foreign buyers, at the moment the only ones interested in investing in this type of property.
The most advantageous properties are currently located in Piedmont: one of the most stunning castles in Monferrato, located in a park with secular trees, a manor of 5,962 square metres in perfect condition, with a 16th century guesthouse, is on sale for 7 million euros, just over 1,000 euro per square meter. Similar occasions can be found in Umbria, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Liguria and Tuscany, one of the most sought after for this type of property.
It is the case of the 19th century Castello di Acquabella, in the splendid natural reserve of Vallombrosa, near the abbey by the same name, which has been perfectly renovated, for a total of 5,000 square meters inside.
On the coast between Livorno and Castiglioncello, a castle dating back to the beginning of the 1900s with splendid sea views is on sale - 700 square metres on four floors with two towers. The park includes palm trees, secular pines and exotic plants.
The castle of Sapia - from the name of Sapia Salviati - near Monteriggioni, just 7 km from Siena, is also on sale. Set in a splendid landscape, the hotel needs a full renovation and is on sale for 2.5 million euros.
More expensive are stunning castles in the Chianti countryside near Siena and Florence, like the imposing Castello di Tavolese, which belonged to the house of Farinata degli Uberti, the family of Petrarca's mother: 7,676 covered square meters and 67 hectares of park, which includes buildings such as a church and farms.
Source: ANSAmed [December 15, 2014]
Eight rare antiquities have been pulled from auction by Christie’s over the past six months after a University of Glasgow academic uncovered images of them in archives seized from Italian art dealers convicted of trafficking offences.
The latest tranche of treasures were due to be sold at auction in London tomorrow, but after Dr Christos Tsirogiannis notified Interpol and Italian authorities, they were removed. Last night, the auction house vowed to work with Scotland Yard to scrutinise the items’ provenance.
Dr Tsirogiannis, a research assistant at the university’s Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, discovered the four lots catalogued in the confiscated archives of Giancomo Medici and Gianfranco Becchina, and warned Christie’s was failing to carry out “due diligence”.
Medici was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2004 by a Rome court after he was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in antiquities. Becchina, a Sicilian antiquities dealer, was convicted in Rome four years ago of trafficking in plundered artefacts.
Dr Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist, has access to their photos and documents via Greek police and prosecutors.
The items accepted for tomorrow’s antiquities sale date back to 540BC. They include an Attic black-figured amphora and an Etruscan terracotta antefix. Cumulatively, they are worth close to £100,000.
It is the second time in six months Dr Tsirogiannis has highlighted the dubiety of items being sold through Christie’s. The value of the eight withdrawn lots exceeds £1.2 million.
Dr Tsirogiannis, a member of Trafficking Culture, a Glasgow-based research programme which compiles evidence of the contemporary global trade in looted cultural objects, said: “Christie’s continues to include in its sales antiquities depicted in confiscated archives of convicted art dealers. Sometimes they sell the lots but nearly every time they withdraw them.
“I don’t understand why they can’t do due diligence beforehand. Clearly, it’s not taking place. Christie’s say they don’t have access to these archives which is not true. Every auction house, dealer and museum should refer to Italian and Greek authorities, who would check for free before the sales.” Dr Donna Yates, of Trafficking Culture, added: “Do they contact antiquities trafficking experts before their auctions? No, never. Do they make public whatever provenance documents they have for a particular piece? No, never. I can only conclude that they don’t take this particularly seriously.”
A spokeswoman for Christie’s said: “We have withdrawn four lots from our upcoming antiquities sale as it was brought to our attention that there is a question mark over their provenance, namely, that they are similar to items recorded in the Medici and Becchina archives.
“We will now work with Scotland Yard’s art and antiques unit to discover whether or not there is a basis for concerns expressed over the provenance.”
She said Christie’s would never sell any item it has reason to believe was stolen and called on those with access to the Medici and Becchina archives to make them “freely available.”
Author: Martyn McLaughlin | Source: The Scotsman [April 13, 2015]
Often in a Rembrandt, a Vermeer, a Leonardo, a Van Eyck, or any other great masterpiece of western art, the layers of paint are covered with varnish, sometimes several coats applied at different times over their history. The varnish was originally applied to protect the paint underneath and make the colors appear more vivid, but over the centuries it can degrade. Conservators carefully clean off the old varnish and replace it with new, but to do this safely it is useful to understand the materials and structure of the painting beneath the surface. Conservation scientists can glean this information by analyzing the hidden layers of paint and varnish.
Now, researchers from Nottingham Trent University's School of Science and Technology have partnered with the National Gallery in London to develop an instrument capable of non-invasively capturing subsurface details from artwork at a high resolution. Their setup, published in an Optics Express paper, will allow conservators and conservation scientists to more effectively peek beneath the surface of paintings and artifacts to learn not only how the artist built up the original composition, but also what coatings have been applied to it over the years.
Traditionally, analyzing the layers of a painting requires taking a very small physical sample -- usually around a quarter of a millimeter across -- to view under a microscope. The technique provides a cross-section of the painting's layers, which can be imaged at high resolution and analyzed to gain detailed information on the chemical composition of the paint, but does involve removing some original paint, even if only a very tiny amount. When studying valuable masterpieces, conservation scientists must therefore sample very selectively from already-damaged areas, often only taking a few minute samples from a large canvas.
More recently, researchers have begun to use non-invasive imaging techniques to study paintings and other historical artifacts. For example, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was originally developed for medical imaging but has also been applied to art conservation. Because it uses a beam of light to scan the intact painting without removing physical samples, OCT allows researchers to analyze the painting more extensively. However, the spatial resolution of commercially-available OCT setups is not high enough to fully map the fine layers of paint and varnish.
The Nottingham Trent University researchers gave OCT an upgrade. "We're trying to see how far we can go with non-invasive techniques. We wanted to reach the kind of resolution that conventional destructive techniques have reached," explained Haida Liang, who led the project.
In OCT, a beam of light is split: half is directed towards the sample, and the other half is sent to a reference mirror. The light scatters off both of these surfaces. By measuring the combined signal, which effectively compares the returned light from the sample versus the reference, the apparatus can determine how far into the sample the light penetrated. By repeating this procedure many times across an area, researchers can build up a cross-sectional map of the painting.
Liang and her colleagues used a broadband laser-like light source -- a concentrated beam of light containing a wide range of frequencies. The wider frequency range allows for more precise data collection, but such light sources were not commercially available until recently.
Along with a few other modifications, the addition of the broadband light source enabled the apparatus to scan the painting at a higher resolution. When tested on a late 16th-century copy of a Raphael painting, housed at the National Gallery in London, it performed as well as traditional invasive imaging techniques.
"We are able to not only match the resolution but also to see some of the layer structures with better contrast. That's because OCT is particularly sensitive to changes in refractive index," said Liang. In some places, the ultra-high resolution OCT setup identified varnish layers that were almost indistinguishable from each other under the microscope.
Eventually, the researchers plan to make their instrument available to other art institutions. It could also be useful for analyzing historical manuscripts, which cannot be physically sampled in the same way that paintings can.
In a parallel paper recently published in Optics Express, the researchers also improved the depth into the painting that their apparatus can scan. The two goals are somewhat at odds: using a longer wavelength light source could enhance the penetration depth, but shorter wavelength light (as used in their current setup) provides the best resolution.
"The next challenge is perhaps to be able to do that in one instrument, as well as to extract chemical information from different layers," said Liang.
Source: The Optical Society [April 13, 2015]
The "unique" four foot marble statue is said to have been illegally dug up in Cyrene, a UNESCO world heritage site, before being smuggled to the UK in 2011, via Dubai.
It was uncovered in a west London warehouse by customs officials two years later and handed to the British Museum pending a court's decision over ownership.
District Judge John Zani, who is overseeing the case at Westminster Magistrates Court, was given a detailed analysis of the sculpture during a two hour viewing at the museum.
Accompanied by barristers, solicitors and his legal adviser, the judge carefully examined the statue as he was told stains and other evidence demonstrated that it was “definitely” excavated illegally from the ancient Greek colony of Cyrene.
The statue, which depicts a Greek woman wearing a hood and flowing gown, is said to be unparalleled besides a single comparable example in the Louvre. The woman wears two snake-like bracelets and carries a doll.
It hails from the third centuries BC, when it served as a grave marker.
Authorities in Tripoli have already launched a bid to repatriate the work of art.
A British Museum spokesperson said that as far as they were aware it was the first time a court had convened on the premises.
Jordanian, Riad Al Qassas, who does not reside in the UK, is accused of falsifying paperwork after telling customs that the sculpture came from Turkey, rather than Libya, and was worth £60,000, rather than between £1.5m to £2m.
He denies one count of knowingly or recklessly delivering a false document to HMRC on November 1 last year.
Dr Peter Higgs, curator of Greek sculpture at the British Museum, told District Judge Zani the statue looked “fresh” and had been excavated “fairly recently”.
Highlighting earth stains and marks from vegetation, he pointed to “small pickaxe” marks as the judge circled the statue, studying it closely in a tiny store-room.
A video of the viewing was later played in court.
Dr Higgs said: “The statue is a three-quarter length figure. It is a funerary statue that I believe comes from the region of Cyrenaica, in Libya, which was a Greek colony.
“The statue is thought to represent either Persephone, the goddess of the underworld...or it is meant to be someone who is dedicated to the goddess. I believe it is very unlikely to come from Turkey.”
Dr Higgs said the statue was one of a kind, adding that it was in “the top ten” of its class.
“I believe that the statue was definitely made in Libya, in Cyrenaica,” he added.
“I believe, as I said, it is one of the best examples of its type and is extremely rare.”
Andrew Bird, for HMRC, has told the court that documents suggest Al Qassas had only a marginal role in the export.
He claimed Hassan Fazeli, a Dubai businessman who has claimed the sculpture has belonged to his family collection since 1977, was behind the crime.
Mr Bird said the false documents were submitted by Hassan Fazeli Trading Company LLC, which is based in Dubai, and which was last year accused by New York prosecutors of illegally bringing five ancient Egypt artefacts into the USA.
Ben Watson, representing Al Qassas, indicated his client would be happy to hand over the sculpture to Libya if it was shown to originate from there.
Libya has been plagued by looting and cultural vandalism since the fall of Colonel Gadaffi in 2011, with the resulting power vacuum effectively ending the state-sponsored preservation of Libya's multiple Greek and Roman sites.
The expansion of Islamic State fanatics into North Africa has stoked fears that unique sites will be destroyed, mirroring shocking images from the IS-controlled city of Mosul in Iraq.
A British Museum spokesperson said that as far as they were aware it was the first time a court had convened on its premises.
Author: Victoria Ward | Source: The Telegraph [March 31, 2015]
