Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - 
antiquities looting,illicit antiquities,illicit art trade,illicit cultural property,illicit trade in antiquities,illicit trafficking,U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield
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antiquities looting,illicit antiquities,illicit art trade,illicit cultural property,illicit trade in antiquities,illicit trafficking,U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield
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Highlights from the US Hearing Entitled “Preventing Cultural Genocide: Countering the Plunder and Sale of Priceless Cultural Antiquities by ISIS”
On April 19, 2016 the US House Financial Services Committee Task Force on Terrorism Financing held a one panel, two hour and fifteen minute long hearing entitled “Preventing Cultural Genocide: Countering the Plunder and Sale of Priceless Cultural Antiquities by ISIS” in the Rayburn House Office Building.
A 16 page introductory memorandum and witness biography can be found on the US House of Representatives Financial Services website here.
During this hearing, testimony was given by: (in alphabetical, not speaking order)
• Dr. Amr Al-Azm, PhD, Associate Professor, Shawnee State University
• Mr. Robert M. Edsel, Chairman of the Board, Monuments Men Foundation
• Mr. Yaya J. Fanusie, Director of Analysis, Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance,
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
• Dr. Patty Gerstenblith, PhD, Distinguished Professor, DePaul University College of
Law
• Mr. Lawrence Shindell, Chairman, ARIS Title Insurance Corporation
A video recording of the entire hearing can be viewed below.
During the hearing witnesses described the unabated and systematic process of cultural heritage destruction in Iraq and Syria and antiquities looting in the region which has grown steadily given the regions' instability.
Secretary of U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, Patty Gerstenblith, speaking in a personal capacity and for the Blue Shield organisation she represents, testified before the Financial Services Committee’s Task Force saying, in part
“Unfortunately the looting of archaeological sites is big business, often carried out on an organised industrialised scale and in response to market demand. And many of these sites are unknown before they are looted.
As cultural objects move from source, transit and destination countries different legal systems create obstacles to interdiction of objects and prosecution of crimes and they allow the laundering of title to these artefacts.
The United States is the single largest market for art in the world, with forty-three percent of market share. Because of the availability of the charitable tax deduction, the ability to import works of art and artefacts without payment of tariffs and because of artistic preference, the United States is the largest ultimate market for antiquities, particularly those from the Mediterranean and the Middle East."
A transcript of Dr. Gerstenblith's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
Key imagery from Dr. Amr Al-Azm's testimony can be viewed here.
A transcript of Mr. Robert Edsel's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
A transcript of Mr. Yaya Fanusie's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
A transcript of Dr. Lawrence Shindell's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
Key imagery from Dr. Amr Al-Azm's testimony can be viewed here.
A transcript of Mr. Robert Edsel's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
A transcript of Mr. Yaya Fanusie's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
A transcript of Dr. Lawrence Shindell's testimony can be read in its entirety here.
While key takeaways from this hearing conversations are distilled here ARCA strongly encourages its blog readership to take the time to listen to the entire hearing and examine the legal instruments evidence Dr. Gerstenblith underscores as being necessary.
She reminds us that looting of archaeological sites imposes incalculable costs on society by destroying the original contexts of archaeological artifacts thereby impairing our ability to reconstruct and understand the historical record. Her testimony reminds us that looters loot because they are motivated by profit and that the looting and illicit trafficking phenomenon we are seeing in Iraq, Syria and Libya are responses to the basic economic principle of supply and demand.
The statements of all of the speakers remind us that while the market in antiquities has existed for centuries, its role in facilitating criminal enterprise on the scale that we are seeing in the Middle East is a terrifying one.
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| Maamoun Abdelkarim of Syria’s DGAM inspecting the condition of delivered artefacts transported from various parts of Syria to Damascus on Sept. 21, 2015. |
Antiquities collectors must be educated to understand that the purchase of objects emerging on the open market without legitimate collection histories (i.e. provenance) are the likely product of conflict-based looting of archaeological sites, and contribute significantly to the destruction of the world's cultural heritage. Buyers need to be made to realise that their buying power and their, until now, unharnessed demand for archaeological material, absent transparent ethical acquisition documentation, incentivises those facing economic hardship to participate in, or tacitly condone, the looting that we are observing in countries of conflict.
If collectors in market nations such as the United States and London refuse to buy undocumented artifacts, then the incentives for looting historic sites, which by proxy funds criminal enterprise and terrorism, diminish.
Armed conflicts have long been called the “perfect storm” within which large-scale looting can take place, but not without collectors willing to look the other way.
By Lynda Albertson, ARCA CEO
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