The second panel at ARCA's Third Annual International Art Crime Conference in Amelia on July 9th and 10th will be titled "Perspectives on Forgery and the Local Impact of Heritage Crime."
Laurie Rush, the Booth Family Rome Prize Winner in Historic Preservation at the American Academy in Rome, will present “Art Crime: Effects of a Global Issue at the Community Level”:
"The market for works of art and objects that are acquired using illegal methods has much more than a passive effect on conflict and social disorder in situations of stress around the world. Examples of the influence of the market on behavior at the local level will be used to illustrate how looting and theft actively contribute to instability and in some cases disintegration of the community fabric at the local level. Likewise, there are also examples where measures to prevent art crime offer valuable support and potential partnership for the hard work required when the goals are conflict resolution, social order, and stability."
Dr. Rush has been the installation archaeologist and running the cultural resources program at Fort Drum, NY in support of the US Army Tenth Mountain Division since 1998. Her degrees include a BA from Indiana University Bloomington and an MA and PhD from Northwestern. Her programs and work have won numerous defense and collegial awards. Dr. Rush is the editor of the new book, Archaeology, Cultural Property, and the Military.
Duncan Chappell, the Chair of the CEPS (Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security) International Advisory Board and an Adjunct Professor in the Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney will discuss “Forgery of Australian Aboriginal Art”:
"This paper explores the problem of frauds and fakes in the contemporary Australian Aboriginal art market. For Aboriginal people art plays in particular an important spiritual role in portraying the beliefs and traditions of the ‘dreamtime’- events of the ancient era of creation from which have sprung continuing ceremonies and motifs now perpetuated in modern paintings and other art forms. Art has also become a major source of income for many Aboriginal communities and individuals. Thus when the integrity of that art is challenged by allegations of fraud and fakery it is vital to explore the veracity of these claims and the responses made to them. In the paper particular attention is devoted to those responses made through both the criminal and civil systems of justice in Australia. The conclusion is reached that at present the Australian legal system, and its principal actors such as police and prosecutors, are poorly equipped to deal with problematic works in the Indigenous art market- a situation that is probably not unique to Australia and which will take considerable time and far more imaginative and assertive solutions to remedy."
Since receiving his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1965, Dr. Chappell has held many academic and professional positions including Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and President of the New South Wales Mental Health Review Tribunal (2001-2006). Chappell has published extensively on topics in the criminal world including Violence at Work (3rd edition; Geneva: International Labor Office, 2006) which he co-wrote with Vittorio Di Martino.
Phyllis Callina is a PhD candidate in Ancient History at Swansea University focusing on the protection of cultural property, collecting histories, and the impact of forgeries on the archaeological record. She will present “Historic Forgeries”:
"While laws and regulations such as the 1970 UNESCO Convention may have some influence in protecting against illicit antiquities trading, they do nothing to protect the archaeological record from what I term “historic forgeries.” Historic forgeries were created before the 20th century and, because they have existed for up to a few hundred years in museums and private collections, have established collecting histories that the average scholar or collector would not question. This study provides a cursory look at the volume of historic forgeries that lie unknown in the corpus of antiquities and the danger they pose to the archaeological record. This study also proposes that the quiet and successful existence of these historic forgeries is due largely to the social context within which they were created and in which their collecting histories were developed. The examination of several verified cases of historic forgeries is utilized to analyze the contemporaneous contexts of the forgeries and the structures of their collecting histories, and to present possible solutions for ferreting out additional cases."
Ms. Callina works as an environmental archaeologist for Jacobs Engineering, Inc. and as a Collections Manager at the Alaska Museum of Natural History in Anchorage, Alaska. She also serves as an Antiquities Consultant for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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