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Showing posts with label Sudan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sudan. Show all posts

January 5, 2026

Monday, January 05, 2026 - ,,,,,, No comments

Interview with Marcel MareƩ - Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum

As part of ARCA’s ongoing effort to give prospective participants a deeper look behind the scenes of our Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, Edgar Tijhuis* speaks with our faculty members about their work, their motivations, and the learning environment we create each summer in Italy.

This series aims to offer future participants a personal glimpse into the people who teach with ARCA, the community around it, and what to expect in the coming year.

To begin, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am an Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Through my curatorial work and easy access to sale catalogues, I began to notice recurring problems on the art market: artefacts with dubious histories, questionable practices by sellers, and a striking lack of transparency. As I researched further, it became clear that a significant number of antiquities in circulation can be traced back to recent looting events and are being laundered through false or misleading provenances.

In response, I founded the Circulating Artefacts (CircArt) project in 2018, which I have led ever since. The project applies rigorous provenance research to the trade in cultural heritage, with the dual aim of facilitating the recovery of illegally sourced artefacts and preserving the historical information that so often is lost through plunder and trafficking. The project is currently transitioning into an independent organisation under a new name, to be formally announced next year.

I regularly provide research, expertise, and training to heritage professionals and relevant authorities across Europe, North America, and MENA countries. I work closely with the Border Security and Management Unit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and am a founding member of its Heritage Crime Task Force, which responds to requests for investigative assistance from member and partner countries.

I take a strong interest in the role subject specialists can play in the fight against heritage crime. Early on, I became aware of ARCA’s pioneering efforts to build bridges among all parties in this endeavour – from prosecutors and law enforcement officers to archaeologists and representatives of the trade. I strongly support ARCA’s work, and our collaborations continue to develop and bear fruit.

You have been part of ARCA’s community for some time. Have you attended the annual Amelia Art Crime Conference or previous programmes? And do you have one memorable moment or insight you would like to share with future participants?

I have been actively involved with ARCA’s programmes since 2018, contributing courses and supervising several Capstone theses. One of the most striking aspects of the programme is the students’ exceptional motivation and intellectual engagement, which consistently elevates the quality and depth of the discussions. Their commitment plays a crucial role in shaping a vibrant and supportive ARCA community that extends well beyond the classroom.

What particularly distinguishes the programme is the diversity of participants’ professional and academic backgrounds. This creates a uniquely productive forum for constructive dialogue and meaningful skill-sharing, bringing together perspectives from heritage professionals, law enforcement, researchers, legal experts, and others working in relevant areas. This interdisciplinary exchange provides a solid foundation for developing the professional networks, shared knowledge, and practical infrastructure needed to effectively address the illicit trade in cultural property.

I have attended several of the annual Amelia Art Crime Conferences. They are intellectually stimulating and very motivational, offering a unique opportunity to engage with leading practitioners in the field, exchange ideas across sectors, and strengthen professional connections that often translate into lasting collaborations. People like us are thinly spread, so we rely on networking to maximise the impact of our work.

From your perspective, what makes ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program truly unique and valuable?

ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program is truly unique because it creates a sustained and structured framework for dialogue among professionals who rarely have the opportunity to learn with one another in such a focused area of interest. It brings together participants with widely divergent backgrounds and skill sets – archaeologists, law enforcement officers, legal scholars, forensic analysts, museum professionals, and art market stakeholders. This encourages them to engage not only across disciplines, but across professional cultures.

This kind of interdisciplinary exchange is not merely beneficial; it is essential. The illicit trade in cultural property operates across jurisdictions, sectors, and legal systems, and no single profession can address it effectively in isolation. ARCA’s programme fosters the shared vocabulary, mutual understanding, expertise, and trust required for meaningful collaboration, helping participants to better understand each other’s constraints, priorities, and modes of operation.

Equally important is the programme’s strong emphasis on practical skills and real-world case studies, which bridges the gap between theory and practice. By equipping participants with both conceptual tools and applied methodologies, ARCA contributes directly to improving the effectiveness of investigations, prosecutions, and preventative measures. In this sense, the programme does not simply educate individuals; it helps build the collaborative infrastructure that is indispensable for countering the illegal trade in art and antiquities. Enhanced communication and collaboration between all relevant parties is essential to achieve a higher success rate in counteracting the trade in stolen art and artefacts.

How does the location in Italy — surrounded by centuries of cultural heritage — enhance the learning experience for participants?

I have no doubt that the setting deepens the participants’ sense of inspiration and cultural awareness. That said, cultural heritage is everywhere, and the issues ARCA addresses are by no means confined to Italy.

What the location does offer is a tangible reminder of the long temporal depth and fragility of cultural heritage, and of the cumulative and irreversible impact that poor management and loss can have over time. Being immersed in a place where archaeology, architecture, archives, and living communities intersect will sharpen the participants’ awareness of what is at stake whenever cultural objects, or parts thereof, are removed from their contexts and enter illicit or poorly regulated markets.

In this sense, the Italian setting functions less as a backdrop and more as a quiet point of reference, reinforcing the programme’s core themes without overshadowing its global scope or analytical focus.

Are there particular site visits or practical elements during your course that you find especially valuable?

From my perspective as a speaker, what I find most valuable is the amount of time the programme allocates not only for the presentation of teaching materials in appropriate depth, but also for sustained discussion. This allows complex issues to be unpacked carefully, including the methodological ramifications of provenance research, the practical limits of what subject specialists can and cannot establish from the available evidence, and the ways in which their findings can be brought to bear on police action.

The extended format encourages detailed question-and-answer exchanges, in which finer points can be explored interactively rather than addressed superficially. These discussions often prompt critical reflection, challenge assumptions, and invite participants to contribute perspectives drawn from their own professional experience. For me, this combination of in-depth teaching and engaged dialogue is where much of the programme’s practical value lies.

As we look toward the 2026 program, which developments or emerging issues in the field of art crime do you consider particularly important, and how will these be reflected in your course?

One of the most alarming developments in the field is the growing use of digital technologies to fabricate or manipulate provenance documentation. These tools have significantly lowered the barrier to producing seemingly convincing ownership histories, making traditional forms of due diligence increasingly vulnerable to deception.

This development makes greater involvement of subject specialists – archaeologists, art historians – more pressing than ever. I see an increasing urgency to move beyond heavy reliance on circumstantial and document-based evidence and to strengthen analytical approaches based on evidence contained in the objects themselves. Stylistic and technical features, epigraphic and philological clues, iconography, material characteristics, the presence of dirt, wear, or alterations – all of these, and more, can provide trained specialists with robust indicators of recent illicit excavation at identifiable looting hotspots. Besides, objects should never be studied in isolation. It is vitally important to assess whether they form part of a broader pattern of material observable on the market.

In my course, I stress the need for methodological rigour in provenance research. Participants learn how experts can critically assess documentation, recognise the limits of paper trails, and understand how object-based analysis can provide concrete, defensible findings to help support investigations and enable law-enforcement action. This equips participants to identify old and new forms of deception in the antiquities trade. I will also argue that we need to expand and coordinate capacity to provide police with actionable specialist knowledge, often on short notice as objects are being detained for potential seizure. A new opportunity has arisen to build and harness this capacity sustainably, and this will be addressed in the course.

I will also remind participants that provenance research serves not only to support law enforcement in the recovery of objects, but also to safeguard associated historical data at risk of permanent loss. When specialists share knowledge without adequate reciprocity from the relevant authorities, valuable information is often lost unnecessarily – for example, data concerning other artefacts linked to the same suspect and thus potentially originating from the same archaeological locale. Failure to share information in both directions erases history, discourages specialist engagement, and undermines investigative opportunities. I have encountered multiple examples of this neglect.

The insistence of subject specialists on contextual knowledge may seem excessive, but law enforcement officers must understand that this information substantially enhances the evidentiary, historical, and cultural value of recovered artefacts – and that its loss is an avoidable calamity. Too often, police take for granted the support they receive from specialists, without acknowledging their own responsibility to help preserve clues about the contexts from which objects have been removed. This includes information about supply routes and other artefacts handled by the same actors. It is entirely understandable that professionals from different backgrounds may be blind to each other’s priorities, but this is precisely why sustained and thoughtful communication between these parties is so essential.

Last but not least, my course will demonstrate that enhanced scrutiny of the trade by subject specialists can help foster good practice in the market. When carefully managed, a public service for robust provenance research can establish a new benchmark for ethical trade, promoting higher standards of due diligence among sellers and buyers, and discouraging the circulation of illegally sourced objects. Proactive monitoring by specialists is crucial for ensuring accountability, benefiting all honest actors. Sellers and buyers can reduce their exposure to financial, reputational, and legal risks if they are willing to seek expert feedback in a transparent and auditable manner. To achieve this, we must improve the conditions that make such engagement possible.

What key skills, perspectives, or tools do you hope participants will gain from your course? In what ways can they apply these insights in their professional or academic paths?

The key aim is for subject specialists to recognise the vital role they must play in protecting cultural heritage from criminal exploitation. My course draws attention to a wide range of underused and overlooked methods and tools at their disposal. Academia remains a largely untapped resource in criminal investigations, yet specialists can make a crucial difference by providing law enforcement with reliable intelligence, based on thorough provenance research that only they are equipped to conduct.

The time when experts could conveniently distance themselves from the art market and its practices is over. For those who claim to be heritage professionals, turning a blind eye to heritage destruction is no longer an option. To suggest that this responsibility falls outside their daily duties or institutional remit is hardly justifiable. This sense of disconnect – or outright indifference – remains depressingly common, even in museums, the very institutions entrusted with safeguarding heritage. Such distancing not only fails to protect the past but also enables ongoing losses.

Through my course, participants gain not only the technical skills and analytical tools to assess an object’s archaeological origin and ownership history, but also the perspective and professional confidence to apply these tools responsibly. They learn how to turn their research into usable intelligence for law enforcement, inform prosecutions, and strengthen heritage protection, ensuring that their work has tangible impact both academically and in the real world.

If someone is considering applying to ARCA’s 2026 program, what advice would you give them? And why do you think now is a meaningful moment to engage with this field?

My advice to anyone considering participation in ARCA’s 2026 program is to be prepared to engage fully, not just with the material but with the ethical and practical dilemmas and challenges of protecting cultural heritage. Be ready to learn from experts across disciplines, to question assumptions, and to develop the skills and perspectives that will allow you to make a tangible difference in this field.

Now is a particularly critical moment to engage with the scourge of heritage crime. Around the world, cultural heritage is being destroyed and sold off on an unprecedented scale. There is a pressing need for more people to organise and tackle this problem effectively. The challenges are evolving, as new technologies make illicit practices increasingly sophisticated. Yet the tools, methodologies, and collaborative frameworks available to confront heritage crime are now also more robust than ever. There has never been a more suitable time for well-intentioned specialists to apply their expertise responsibly and make a real-world impact. And ARCA’s program provides the ideal foundation for those seeking to build a career in this field.

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* Dr Edgar Tijhuis is Academic Director at ARCA and is responsible for coordinating ARCA’s postgraduate certificate programmes. Since 2009, he has also taught criminology modules within ARCA's PG Certification programming. To apply for the 2026 programmes, request a prospectus via the email below or contact Edgar Tijhuis for other questions.

šŸ“Œ ARCA Postgraduate Certificate Programmes (Italy | Summer 2026)

• Post Lauream I (22 May – 23 June 2026): PG Cert in Art & Antiquities Crime

• Post Lauream II (26 June – 26 July 2026): PG Cert in Provenance, Acquisition & Interpretation of Cultural Property

➡️ Take one track—or combine both in a single summer.



April 16, 2025

Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - ,,,,, No comments

Sudan’s Cultural Heart Under Threat: The Fate of the Sudan National Museum Amid Civil Conflict


In the heart of Khartoum, nestled near the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, stands the Sudan National Museum—once a vital repository to centuries of knowledge regarding country's ancient and storied past.  Home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of Nubian archaeology, the museum has long served as both a guardian of Sudan’s rich cultural heritage and a symbol of national identity. 

When violence first broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Khartoum became an epicenter of combat. Within days, RSF units occupied large swaths of the city, including key government buildings, residential neighbourhoods, and the area surrounding the Sudan National Museum. 

The museum itself fell within contested territory, with ongoing shelling and street battles posing severe risk and making its interior impossible to secure.  Throughout the months that followed, reports of looting and damage to Khartoum’s infrastructure and the museum were reported, with its museum staff and heritage experts displaced under the strain of war, making it nearly impossible to assess the damage while the the city remained under siege. 

It wasn’t until early 2025—after a sustained counteroffensive by the SAF and international diplomatic pressure—that much of central Khartoum, including the museum district, was recaptured. By then, however, the damage to Sudan's important cultural landmarks had already been done.

A Repository of Nubian Glory

The Sudan National Museum was established in 1971 and housed over 50,000 years of human history. Its galleries showcased everything from prehistoric stone tools and ancient Christian frescoes to monumental statues and pharaonic temples rescued from the waters of Lake Nasser during the UNESCO Nubia Campaign of the 1960s. The museum's collection includes artifacts from the Kingdom of Kush, the Kerma civilisation, and the Christian kingdoms of Nubia, shedding light on cultures often overshadowed by their northern neighbours in Egypt.

What made the museum especially significant was not just the artefacts it held, but the unique narrative it wove—a story of African ingenuity, political power, and religious transformation that challenged long-standing historical biases and centered Sudan within the broader tapestry of global heritage which transcended its modern day, and often contested borders.

Cultural Institutions in the Crossfire

Since the outbreak of conflict, the museum—like many institutions in the country—suffered from a lack of security, interrupted funding, and the physical dangers posed by armed clashes waged in and around it.  By early 2024, satellite images and reports from heritage professionals warned of structural damage to the museum's building and the increasing vulnerability of its collections to looting and environmental degradation.  

As the war raged on, nearly all archaeological research was suspended in the country and most conservation projects ceased. 

In September 2004, two hundred Sudanese researchers called on South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit to help recover valuable artefacts believed to have been looted from the National Museum in Khartoum, and thought by some to have been routed through South Sudan as a transit country for resale on the black market. 

Buhen temple at the grounds of Sudan National Museum in Khartoum before conflict

Outside of Khartoum, heritage sites like the pyramids of MeroĆ«, the ruins of Dongola, and the ancient city of Naga face their own perils, ranging from looting to neglect, as tourism halted and protective oversight became more and more precarious.  In many cases, local communities that once partnered with archaeologists to steward these sites, were forced to focus on survival amid conflict and displacement.

Current Situation

The first awful photos ARCA has seen of the devastated Sudan National Museum show one small glimmer of hope that at least the Buhen Dynasty temple, on the grounds of the museum, appears to be mostly intact.  Built by Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I (1473-1458 BCE), the temple is dedicated to Horus and once stood at the fortress of Buhan.  It was moved to Khartoum, when its find spot was covered by the resulting Lake Nasser, created by the Aswan Dam project in 1964.

The damage inside the museum and in its labs is more painful and the destruction and looting of pieces in the collection are still under assessment.  The Director of Museums at the National Corporation for Antiquities and Chair of the Sudanese Antiquities Repatriation Committee, Ikhlas Abdel Latif has stated that all the artefacts from the Gold Room, one of the rarest museum collections from the Kushite Empire, were systematically stolen, and many of the museum's other artefacts were also destroyed.


Outside, unexploded projectiles can be found embedded in the stone and will need to be removed carefully by explosive experts. 

In the Aftermath

The current situation in Sudan is critical, and serves as a painful reminder of the fragility of cultural heritage during times of conflict, as well as the fact that the human impact of devastation and war often supersedes and takes priority over heritage impact.  

That said, the loss of collections within the Sudan National Museum and its other heritage institutions and archaeological sites should not be under-recognised. The museum did more than simply display artefacts—it anchored identity, inspired pride, and offered future generations a connection to their roots. 

Losses such as those being recorded now, are and will continue to be a national tragedy, as well as a global one, long after the conflict subsides.

King Atlanersa (also Atlanarsa), Kushite ruler of the Napatan kingdom of Nubia
(Reign c. 653–643 BCE) 

In the meantime, digital preservation efforts, diaspora scholarship, and international partnerships are called upon to help safeguard what could not be protected from afar. The world must not turn away. The ruins of Nubia tell a story that spans millennia and whether or not that story continues depends not just on the past—but on how we choose to protect it today.

March 11, 2024

Monday, March 11, 2024 - ,,,,, No comments

The wacky illicit world of one Ushabti of the Pharaoh Taharqa

The Cultural Heritage Brigade of Spain's PolicĆ­a Nacional have completed an investigation into a rare, illicitly trafficked, ushabti. The statuette, holding traditional Egyptian agricultural implements, reproduces the text of Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead and would have been placed in the tomb of the deceased.  Property of the Republic of the Sudan, the funerary figurine was sold to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in the Netherlands by "a Catalan antiques dealer". 

Although unnamed in today's press release, the Spanish police did provide some interesting details regarding the sales transaction for this illicit object, which, in turn, also help us to identify who the unnamed dealer in question is.  

Today's press statement indicates that the Spanish investigation began when the Dutch National Polite forwarded their colleagues in Spain a complaint for aggravated fraud that had been filed in the Netherlands by the director of the museum in Leiden regarding their purchase of a suspect ushabti for Pharaoh Taharqa, the 4th king of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt and the Qore of the Kingdom of Kush from 690 to 664 BCE. 

The press release went on to say that "the complaint stated that an antiques dealer, responsible for an antiques establishment in Barcelona, ​​had sold a sculpture of Sudanese origin to the Dutch museum for 100,000 euros" and that the sales transaction was facilitated using false provenance documentation which was presented to provide a cover to the artefact's illicit origin.  Based on the foregoing, the museum then filed their complaint with the Dutch national authorities and were seeking the return of their purchase price.

To facilitate the sale, the police confirmed that the dealer in question had provided the museum with a digital copy of a handwritten document purportedly dating to May 27, 1967 which, at face value, appeared to have been written by an employee of the Sudanese government.  This document also appeared to attest to the fact that the artefact had left the Sudan for London sometime between 1930 and 1940.  

After careful review of this document, which included follow-up examination involving individuals affiliated with the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan in Spain,, as well as with heritage experts specialising in the illicit trafficking of Egyptian material circulating within the ancient art market, the paperwork provided was determined to be a false attestation.  This technique is sometimes used by sellers of illicit material to increase verisimilitude to a work of fiction through the invention and insertion of details into an object's documentation which are presented as factual, when they are not.

Reviewing this document it was determined that the paperwork presented by the dealer to legitimise this object's circulation contained several discrepancies. The most blatant error on the part of the fraudster(s) was that the forged document referenced Sudan's "Ministry of Archeology", a departmental name that has never existed in this African country.  

In 1967 the competent authority tasked with the protection of cultural heritage in the Sudan was the Sudanese Antiquities Service, abbreviated as the SAS (now the National Corporation for Antiquities & Museums - NCAM).  In 1939 the SAS was linked to the Ministry of Education, and by 1953 to the Ministry of Al Maref.  In addition to the above, the signatory of the falsified attestation referred to himself with the title of "general director" for the aforementioned nonexistent ministry.  And while this named individual does match to a person previously affiliated with the government of Sudan, this person never held a position with this title.  Likewise,  their documented signature on official records differs from the one signed and given to the museum substantiating the objects departure from the country.

During this investigation it was also determined that the artefact was one of several artefacts believed to have been stolen from the Gebel Barkal Museum situated on the right (north) bank of the Nile on the SW edge of modern Karima, Sudan which occurred between 2000 and 2003.

The complaint filed by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, concluded that based on the evidence of fraud they were seeking a refund of the purchase price from the Catalan dealer.  The Spanish police press report indicates that the person under investigation, if found guilty, would be responsible for a crime of aggravated fraud by involving assets of artistic, historical and cultural heritage, as well as for exceeding the fraud of 50,000 euros for the object's sale to the Dutch museum. 

But just who is the unnamed Catalan dealer? 

Matching the partial photograph of the ushabti for Pharaoh Taharqa depicted on Spain's press release lead me to a more complete rendering of the object on the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden's accession record.  That record indicates that the Dutch museum purchased the sculpture in 2014 via Spain but not much else in the way of detail on its official collection history.  That same year, Jaume Bagot, of J. Bagot ArqueologĆ­a, a problematic Catalan dealer who has been mentioned frequently on ARCA's blog, was identified as having brought a 25th Dynasty ushabti of similar proportions to Brussels for the 2014 BRAFA art fair.  Unfortunately, the first Pinterest photo of that event wasn't clear enough to confirm if Bagot's artefact was the one the museum had purchased. 

Going back to Bagot's website we can find a "sold" notice for a Ushabti of the Pharaoh Taharqa. 


The provenance for this piece is listed as follows:

‘Family Babeker, Sudan. In Europe since 1930. Family C., Barcelona, prior 1970.’


This seemed to match to the export date on paperwork the Spanish authorities had, but I still wanted to ensure that I had the right artefact and the right doggy documents presenting dealer, before naming him, so I dug a bit deeper.  I then came across an article by Alain Truong which tells us more regarding the provenance of Bagot's 2014 ushabti. That article listed the collection history for the Spanish dealer's ushabti as:


Provenance:  The family of M. Mustafa Abdalla Babeker, Khartoum, Sudan, 1917 - 1930. Collection of Don C. Bes, 1930. Private European collection, 1940. From the archaeological work at the pyramid of Taharqa, the royal necropolis of Nuri, Nubia.


To be 100 percent certain the objects were a match, I then took the image from J. Bagot ArqueologĆ­a sales record with the black background and overlayed it with the one attached to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden accession record.  Without a doubt, the two images reflect an object of the same size and proportion and depict the same object. 

It should be noted that this is not the only "Babeker" provenance artefact sold by Bagot.  In 2017 the Catalan dealer brought another ushabti to Brafa, this one of the King Senkamanisken, the third successor of Taharqa, who likewise was a king buried at Nuri (Sudan) and low and behold it too had the same purported provenance.  Did Bagot use the same attestation letter provided to the Dutch museum? 

So with that, I leave you with a pressing question.  To those of you out there who have handled other objects with Mr. Babeker as your assumed touch stone of pristine provenance, what say you? Any comments from Christie's, or Christie's again or  Sotheby's or Axel Vervoordt or anyone else who has bought or sold a Taharqa or a Senkamanisken ushabti since the early 2000s?  

Care to share your details with the Spanish authorities?  

By: Lynda Albertson

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