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Showing posts with label art crime in war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art crime in war. Show all posts

February 14, 2024

Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - ,,,, No comments

A stolen painting by Ivan Aivazovsky? This work is set to be auctioned in Russia in four days.

Full Moon Night, 1878 by Ivan Aivazovsky

There are 32 stolen paintings listed in the INTERPOL Works of Art database by the Romantic painter Ivan Aivaszovsky (1817-1900), when searching under the spelling "Ivan Constatinowitsch Aivazoffski" but not, apparently this one.  This one is scheduled to be auctioned in Moscow on February 18th. 

Aivazovsky, born Hovhannes Aivazian in 1817, was a prolific marinist artist of Armenian descent who left an indelible mark on the art world with his mesmerising seascapes. Born in 1817 in the Crimean city of Feodosia, Aivazovsky studied painting at the Fine Art Academy in Saint Petersburg, but it was his deep connection to the Black Sea coast which profoundly influenced his work, and earned him the title "the painter of the sea." 

Considered a master of light and shadow, Aivazovsky's oeuvre comprises over 6,000 paintings, ranging from serene moonlit scenes, tempestuous maritime battles, and shipwrecks often capturing the irresistible and ever-changing moods of the sea, as well as the men who navigated upon it, with unparalleled realism and drama. 

His works have been sold for a wide range of prices, with some of his most renowned and iconic works fetching millions. His eponymous painting, The Ninth Wave, 1850 depicts an unlucky group of castaways trying to survive a shipwreck.  The artwork was a hat tip to the nautical phenomenon in which waves are said to grow larger and larger, in a continuing series, up until the largest wave, the ninth, at which point the sequence starts again.  This painting has been part of the collection of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg since 1897, having originally been acquired for the Imperial Hermitage of Emperor Alexander III.  

According to ArtPrice, as one of the most sought-after 19th century painters, Aivazovsky's works have gone up for sale at public auction at least 1,296 times some at modest prices and others tipping the top of the chart.  In 2006, two London auctions of his paintings, View of Constantinople (1852) and The Varangians on the Dnieper (1876) hammered in at € 2,142,810 at Christie's and € 2,262,535  at Sotheby's. In 2020, the artist's painting The Bay of Naples, 1878 was sold at Sotheby’s for $2.9 million.

But let's talk about the origins of one of Aivazovsky's seascapes coming up for sale in Russia just four days. 

Painted by Aivazovsky in 1878, Full Moon Night, 1878, the 63.4 X 84.2 cm aoil on canvas painting is set to be auctioned at the Moscow Auction House, with a starting bid listed at ₽100 million (€1,022,677).

The painting's accompanying documentation says very little about the painting's provenance.  Instead, the auction house provides a 2009 letter, signed by three individuals working at the Russian Museum for Scientific Work attesting to the artworks authenticity. 

Yesterday,  Günduze Aydynovych, an Azerbaijani-born Ukrainian lawyer and human rights activist who has served as Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea reported on the Social Media website "X" that this artwork was one of some fifty canvases illegally transferred to the Simferopol Art Museum at the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, and its theft was registered with INTERPOL in 2017.

But how did this painting get to Russia? 


According to Ukrainian authorities, on 18 February 2014, the Simferopol Art Museum and the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore signed an exhibition agreement to jointly exhibit paintings as part of the exhibition Russian and Ukrainian Art of the 18th - Early 20th Centuries.  The offering was designed to give audiences a rare opportunity to explore the diverse artistic expressions of Russian and Ukrainian artists side by side from these periods. 

On the same day, 52 paintings belonging to the Museum Fund of Ukraine, including Aivazovsky's Full Moon Night, 1878 arrived in Mariupol from Crimea. 

Expected to last until 31 May 2014, the exhibition was forced to close earlier when the management of the Simferopol Art Museum recalled the paintings to the territory of the then-occupied Crimea due to the increasingly tense socio-political situation in Ukraine.  On 19 March 2014, the Mariupol museum workers received a letter from the director of the Simferopol Art Museum.  Thereafter, Olga Chaplinska, the then-head of the Mariupol Museum of Local History terminated the exhibition agreement and on 20 March 2014 Nataliya Kuryonysheva, also from the Mariupol Museum oversaw the handover of 52 paintings to an envoy for transfer to the Simferopol Museum.  According to later reports in Russian media, the museum's staff had “saved” these paintings from damage by Ukrainian fighters.

In March 2018 both women were criminally charged for their actions pursuant to Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which consists in official negligence, i.e. failure to perform or improper performance of official duties by an official, which caused significant damage to Ukraine's state interests.

By December 2016 and up through March 2017, Full Moon Night, 1878 by Aivazovsky was in St Petersburg, circulating along with 53 other works of art by the artist during a special exhibition.  This 200 year anniversary event occupied the entire first floor of the Benois building of the State Russian Museum. 

The basis of this exhibition was said to be well-known and unfamiliar works completed by Aivazovsky from public and private collections.  A special section of the exhibition was dedicated to the theme “Aivazovsky - battle painter” - paintings depicting naval episodes of the Crimean War of 1853–1856. 



By 19 August 2017 Tetyana Tikhonchyk, the press secretary of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea temporarily stationed in Kyiv had published a copy of a letter to her Facebook page.

This document, protocolled as: 
Identification code 40108756
19 08.2017 № 4584/100/01-2017

From the National Police of Ukraine - Main Department of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol received by the Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the Senior Advisor of Justice Mamedov G.A reads as follows:

Dear Günduze Aydynovych,

We inform you that according to the response of the Department of Interpol and Europol of the National Police of Ukraine, the works of art mentioned in the letter dated August 15, 2017 No. 4369/100/01-2017 were entered into the records of the General Secretariat of Interpol as "stolen".

Best regards

Head, Police General of the third rank

A.K. Bakhchivanzhi

Unfortunately, due to insufficient resources and the ongoing war in Ukraine, images and documentation for the 52 works of art, identified in this single 2014 misappropriation, have not yet been uploaded to the Interpol Works of Art database and made accessible to the public and other country law enforcement agencies. 

ARCA hopes that by highlighting Günduze Aydynovych's concerns and Ukraine's supporting documentation on their artworks' removal, will serve as a cautionary reminder that this painting's auction, (and potentially others) is being questioned by  Ukraine as has been removed from the confines of the territory of Ukraine in contravention of the laws of Ukraine. 

For now, ARCA recommends that responsible and ethical collectors refrain from bidding on this artwork unless its full provenance documentation is provided.  

UPDATE: 19:00 GMT+1

Moscow Auction House has told Russian journalists with RBC that the painting  Full Moon Night, 1878 by Aivazovsky was purchased at Stockholm's Auktionsverk in Sweden in 2008.  They also state that it is this second Moonlit Night, a view of the Black Sea off the Crimean coast in the Feodosia region dating to 1882 which is the subject of the Interpol notice as having been once been part of the Simferopol Art Museum collection. 

 

ARCA has confirmed there was a 2008 sale in Stockholm which matches the depiction of the disputed Aivazovsky painting, now up for auction in Moscow. This painting, under the title of A corner of Constantinople from the sea by moonlight, was painted in 1878 and uses a different phonetical spelling for the artist, referring to him as Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky.  According to the ArtPrice database, this painting sold for a hammer price of € 338,910. 

What remains a question is why, and for what the motive if any, did the auction house and the authenticators at the Russian Museum for Scientific Work, who attested to the artworks authenticity, change the name of the artwork.

By Lynda Albertson

October 28, 2021

Thursday, October 28, 2021 - ,,, 1 comment

After 130 years, what (limited) cultural property is finally going home to Benin


Sometimes when a country fights for their cultural property it is not about the monetary value, but about its cultural significance. 

Below is a list of the twenty-six objects, referred to as the Béhanzin Treasury, once considered colonial spoils of war, which were taken during the second Franco-Dahomean war, and which are now after legislative action in France, finally going home to Benin.  

These objects will be transferred to the Ouidah Museum of History in Ouidah, Benin, before eventually going to their permanent home at the former location of the royal palaces of Abomey, a UNESCO world heritage site where Benin is building a museum. 

These objects illustrate that not everything worth fighting for has million-dollar pricetags at art auctions and galleries, and that what is of key importance is the very important historical, symbolic and protective value this material culture represents to the Beninese population. 

1. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.1 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Ghézo;

2. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.2 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Glèlè;

3. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.3 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Béhanzin;

4. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.4 - A door from the royal palace of Abomey;

5. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.5 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

6. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.6 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

7. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.7 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

8. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.8 - A royal seat;

9. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.1 - A recade (badge of authority) reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

10. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.2 - Royal calabashes scraped and engraved from Abomey, taken at war in the royal palaces;

11. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.3 - A portable altar aseñ hotagati;

12. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.4 - An Aseñ royal ante mortem portable altar of King Béhanzin;

13. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.5 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

14. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.6 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

15. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.7 - The throne of King Glèlè;

16. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.8 - The throne of King Ghézo (long called “Throne of King Béhanzin”);

17. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.9 - An Aseñ hotagati portable altar to the panther, ancestor of the royal families of Porto-Novo, Allada and Abomey;

18. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.10 - Fuseau;

19. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.11 - A loom;

20. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.12 - A pair of soldier's pants;

21. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.13 - A Katakle tripod seat on which the king rested his feet;

22. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.14 - A man's tunic;

23. Inventory number of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac: 71.1895.16.15 - A Recade (badge of authority) reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

24. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.16 - A Recade reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

25. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.17 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

26. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.18 - A leather bag.

130 years for a pair of pants and a tunic, or a wooden thrown.  Let that sink in for a moment when you try to "value" an object in the future. 

January 19, 2020

Sunday, January 19, 2020 - ,,,,,, No comments

Flashback Sunday: ARCA's Postgraduate Program: From the eyes of one of our alumni - Part I


I’m not sure whether it makes more sense to say that we’re only halfway through with the ARCA postgraduate program or that we’re already halfway through with the program. On the one hand, we have had the good fortune of hearing from six expert professors and have covered all sorts of ground—academic and professional terrain alike—in the study of art crime: from heritage law to art insurance, from art policing to forgery, and from museum security to war crimes. We’ve practically memorized most of the UNESCO conventions at this point, we’re capable of sketching out the infamous Medici trafficking organigram at the blow of a whistle, and we’re all pretty used to having revenge-fantasy dreams about prosecuting certain museums with less-than acceptable collection ethics and repatriating all of their loot.

On the other hand, however, it feels like we’ve only just arrived in Amelia and that there’s still a whole lot more for us to learn in the coming weeks about cultural heritage protection. We’ve yet to encounter the international art market or art criminology head-on, and we’re not quite sure whether we believe the Spanish or the British are more entitled to Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington. Moreover, we still don’t know how we would actually steal the Ghent Altarpiece or Munch’s The Scream and this makes me wonder: can anyone really fashion him or herself an art crime expert without knowing how to pull off a major museum heist? It’s probably a good thing that we’re only halfway done with the ARCA program, but I’ll share with you what we’ve covered in the courses so far since we are, after all, already halfway finished with the program.  


Following Duncan Chappell’s course our studies shifted from the subject of art law to its not-too-distant relative, art insurance. Dorit Straus, art insurance veteran and board member at AXA Art, served as the instructor for this course. Straus has had a lengthy and exciting career with all sorts of cinematic turns and climaxes. Its major plot twist: Straus began her career studying Near Eastern Archaeology and only later in life migrated into the world of art insurance. For those of us trained in the humanities—which is to say, with little to no background in the fine arts market—Straus guaranteed a convenient point of entry into the study of art insurance. Pairing her formal explanations with fascinating anecdotes, Straus shaped and colored the art insurance industry with remarkable and stunning mastery. By the end of the week Straus had participants map out the entire process of acquiring art insurance coverage in role-play exercises—a form of evaluation that was, I am sure, most entertaining for Dorit herself.

We then heard from private investigator Richard Ellis, the founder of Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Squad. He covered lessons on the dark, seedy underbelly that is the black market and did a solid job explaining the ins and outs of INTERPOL and clarified the issues that police forces deal with in an event of art theft—issues that are quite distinct from the ones that insurers, collectors, or museums address.

One of the recurring lessons that Ellis repeated over and over again was the importance of knowing one’s enemy.  Understanding the motives that animate an episode of art crime, Ellis stressed, is always integral to the investigation process. At the conclusion of his course Ellis held a charming cocktail gathering that was, I would hold, much needed after a tense week studying some pretty serious material.

ARCA founder Noah Charney took the reigns for our next course on forgery. Charney launched his course with an art history lesson in which students were asked to perform visual analysis on a set of Caravaggio paintings. This exercise offered an exciting opportunity for students to truly interface with the very objects that had been broached in previous courses but perhaps not formally or materially addressed. It was a delight to work through Caravaggio’s endlessly fascinating visual puzzles, and Charney’s thorough guidance and insightful explanations proved to be especially useful in our brief art historical investigation. The rest of the week was spent differentiating (conceptually) fakes from forgeries, discussing the psychological profile of art forgers, and reviewing some of the major historical cases that constitute Charney’s sector of the art crime world. With Charney still in town, ARCA held its annual interdisciplinary conference—an exciting three days of panel discussions.

After a weekend of conference talks and cocktail parties ARCA participants met with security pundit Dick Drent. Following 25 years in law enforcement, Drent joined the staff at Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands and continues to provide security advising through his consulting firm. Though Drent’s energy and countenance might feel as formidable and high-stakes as his work, the Dutch professor’s instruction was often light and playful—much like the goofy videos he would screen at the beginning of class too lighten the mood.  This was especially appreciated given his course covers everything from everyday threats in a museum to Active Shooter incidents.

At the end of Drent’s class participants carried out a security audit at a museum. In this exercise we set out to observe surveillance cameras, security guards, museum layouts, fire prevention strategies, smoke detectors, alarm systems, and so on. The exercise gave ARCA participants a unique opportunity to spend a day at a museum not admiring precious artworks but instead observing the very security systems that attempt to protect these objects.

At the conclusion of Drent’s course we delved headfirst into “Art Crime During War” with Judge Arthur Tompkins. Tompkins’ hefty lesson plans and near-impeccable knowledge of world history made for an information-rich crash course in our study of art crime during conflict. At the outset of his first lesson Tompkins traced the origins of art crime all the way back to the ancient world.

The looting of what might be anachronistically termed “cultural property” often went part and parcel with military combat and imperial campaigns in the ancient world—thus giving birth to the lengthy history of what we now study as art crime. Tompkins then traversed the entire chronology of war—passing through the Middle Ages and early modernity until reaching the late twentieth century—and identified the various renditions of art crime that have plagued nation-states and peoples during times of conflict. By the end of the course participants were asked to submit a paper detailing one particular episode of art crime that took place in the midst of combat. Students wrote about everything from plunders during antiquity to more recent art theft in the Middle East to the destruction of libraries in the American Civil War. 

So there you have it! We have some of the covered vast terrain in the world art crime and are already halfway through this intensive training. I’ll get back to you with more storytelling and info when we’re only a few short steps away from calling ourselves full-on, to-the-core certificate-ready professionals!

By:  Christopher Falcone

January 9, 2020

Thursday, January 09, 2020 - ,,,, No comments

De-weaponizing Culture: ARCA offers scholarships for military affiliated CPP reservists and civilians.

Company of African American soldiers [US 5th Army] type/write reports between the ancient columns of the Greek Temple of Hera II in Paestum, Italy,
22 September 1943 Image Credit: US National Archives
Recognizing that culture has moved to the frontline of wars and conflicts, both as collateral damage and as a direct target, ARCA stands with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and with the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), founded in 1879, and North America’s oldest and largest archaeological organization, in advocating for the preservation of the world’s archaeological heritage during conflict.  Likewise believing that unwarranted attacks on culture arouse hostility in local populations, offers adversaries a potent propaganda weapon, and undermines support on the home front and among US military allies, ARCA condemns the intentional targeting of ALL cultural heritage sites during conflict in unequivocal terms.  

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual as well as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two subsequent Protocols clearly prohibit the intentional destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict, unless said historical site has become a military objective and there is no feasible alternative for obtaining a similar military advantage.  Despite these obligations, included in international treaties and military regulations, ARCA as a group of civilian observers to the globe's conflagrations, remains concerned about cultural property protection in host and occupied nations, especially where regional and global conflict or symmetrical and asymmetric warfare are, or have, or might place a country's heritage at risk. 


Seventy-six years ago, 29 December 1943 to be exact, then General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of United States forces in Europe as well as commander of the Allied armed forces, who fully understood the complexities of war,  understood the need for protecting culture in times of conflict.  

Putting his thoughts and concerns to paper, Eisenhower wrote:

To: All Commanders 

Today we are fighting in a country which has contributed a great deal to our cultural inheritance, a country rich in monuments which by their creation helped and now in their old age illustrate the growth of the civilization which is ours. We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows. 
If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men’s lives count infinitely more and the building must go. But the choice is not always so clear-cut as that. In many cases the monuments can be spared without any detriment to operational needs. Nothing can stand against the argument of military necessity. That is an accepted principle. But the phrase “military necessity” is sometimes used where it would be more truthful to speak of military convenience or even of personal convenience. I do not want it to cloak slackness or indifference.

It is a responsibility of higher commanders to determine through A.M.G. Officers the locations of historical monuments whether they be immediately ahead of our front lines or in areas occupied by us. This information passed to lower echelons through normal channels places the responsibility of all Commanders of complying with the spirit of this letter.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
General U.S. Army
Commander-in-Chief

File: CAD 000.4 (3-25-43) (1), Sec. 2, Security Classified General Correspondence, 1943-July 1949, General Records, Civil Affairs Division, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, RG 165.

Understanding that when armed conflict, intentional destruction and looting damage or destroy cultural heritage, peace and security are simultaneously threatened, ARCA began offering a select number of Minerva scholarships to heritage professionals working in the conflict and post conflict countries of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Egypt.  From 2015 until 2019 these Middle East focused scholarships have provided cost-free training to individuals living and working in specific conflict and post-conflict countries, involved in heritage protection.  These scholarships were established under the premise that cultural heritage personnel in at risk source countries, tasked and trained in art crime and cultural property protection, serve to help communities to understand, prevent and mitigate crimes against cultural in their respective homelands. 

Extending that advocacy into 2020, and given the recent statements made by US president potentially condoning the targeting of culture in Iran, ARCA has approved two full-tuition scholarships for its Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection to US military personnel or allied civilians working to protect heritage in a military context and co-operating with the civilian authorities to avoid collateral damage of cultural heritage sites from military operations.

Understanding that cultural property protection can be a force multiplier instead of an ethnic or regional divider, by concurrently contributing to international and domestic stability and goodwill, interested civilian and military personnel should write to ARCA at support@artcrimeresearch.org for further information on what is needed to qualify and apply. 

Why not help us change the narrative and curb this scourge by de-weaponizing cultural heritage and by showing respect for the sacrifice of those working in military settings ethically tasked with saving culture, despite the complicating exigencies of conflict. 

January 6, 2020

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A culture of impunity on the cultural causalities of war


Op/Ed by Lynda Albertson

Twice in the span of only 24 hours, the current president of the United States has implied that in the event of retaliation against the killing in Baghdad of General Qassem Soleimani, the cultural sites of Iran would be fair game as military targets. 

Over the course of two late night tweets on Saturday, 4 January 2020, President Trump first wrote:

"Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have..... 

....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran &  the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!"


The US leader's second statement, verbal, was made aboard Air Force One on Sunday, 5 January 2020.  Given the frequency with which President Trump has wielded his twitter account to bend constituent opinion to his will, attacking investigations such as the special counsel and impeachment probes, liberal news organizations, Democrats, and various country leaders around the globe, those reporting aboard the presidential airplane sought clarification on the American president's troubling tweet.

Responding to their query, the President Trump expanded on his earlier provocatory statement saying:

"They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” the president said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way."

Both of these statements were made following Major General Hossein Dehghan's own escalative words after the U.S. ordered the killing of Soleimani. Interviewed by CNN journalists in Tehran, Dehghan, who serves as military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei stated that Iran would retaliate directly against US "military sites" as a reprisal for the death of the controversial Iranian general.  

Is Art Worth a Life? 

 Authoritarian regimes have been known to use cultural heritage manipulatively, in accordance with their own needs, and often in complete disregard to prevailing international law.

While tensions between the US and Iran escalate, it is important to remember that with respect to the protection of cultural property during armed conflict the general provisions of customary international humanitarian law (IHL) Rule 38, protecting civilian property, apply.   This rule requires that each party to the conflict must respect cultural property and specifies that:


Likewise specific protections, recognizing the importance of a country's cultural heritage to humankind are enshrined in the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.  Article 4, (Respect for cultural property) states:

1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect cultural property situated within their own territory as well as within the territory of other High Contracting Parties by refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes which are likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility, directed against such property.

2. The obligations mentioned in paragraph 1 of the present Article may be waived only in cases where military necessity imperatively requires such a waiver.

3. The High Contracting Parties further undertake to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property. They shall refrain from requisitioning movable cultural property situated in the territory of another High Contracting Party.

4. They shall refrain from any act directed by way of reprisals against cultural property.

5. No High Contracting Party may evade the obligations incumbent upon it under the present Article, in respect of another High Contracting Party, by reason of the fact that the latter has not applied the measures of safeguard referred to in Article 3.

The Hague Convention is based on the principle that "damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind, since each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world." 

 The Second Protocol, further elaborates the provisions of the Hague Convention relating to safeguarding of and respect for cultural property and the conduct of the military during hostilities.  Both the First and the Second Protocols lead to the question of applicability of customary international law, of other sources of international law and local law and what they require of the warring parties.

Under the Hague Convention, as an official state party to the Convention and the First and Second Protocols, the Iranian government is obliged ‘respect’ cultural property in their or other territories.   The United States of America deposited their instrument of ratification of this Convention on 13 March 2009.  Their own instrument contained the following additional declarations:

(1) It is the understanding of the United States of America that “special protection”, as defined in Chapter II of the Convention, codifies customary international law in that it, first, prohibits the use of any cultural property to shield any legitimate military targets from attack and, second, allows all property to be attacked using any lawful and proportionate means, if required by military necessity and notwithstanding possible collateral damage to such property.

(2) It is the understanding of the United States of America that any decision by any military commander, military personnel, or any other person responsible for planning, authorizing, or executing military action or other activities covered by this Convention shall only be judged on the basis of that person’s assessment of the information reasonably available to the person at the time the person planned, authorized, or executed the action under review, and shall not be judged on the basis of information that comes to light after the action under review was taken.

(3) It is the understanding of the United States of America that the rules established by the Convention apply only to conventional weapons, and are without prejudice to the rules of international law governing other types of weapons, including nuclear weapons.

(4) It is the understanding of the United States of America that, as is true for all civilian objects, the primary responsibility for the protection of cultural objects rests with the Party controlling that property, to ensure that it is properly identified and that it is not used for unlawful purposes.

The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, and confronts the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole (in art. 8(2)(b)(ix)) prohibits during international armed conflict intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives.  The International Criminal Court further underscored its stance on crimes against heritage as a potential war crime as recently as the August 2016 case against Mr Ahmad Al-Faqi Al Mahdi. During his trial, Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, gave an opening statement recognizing that "deliberate attacks on cultural property have become actual weapons of war. They are being used to eliminate entire communities and wipe out any traces left of them, their history and identity, as though they never existed." 

Unfortunately, due to its limited jurisdictional power and investigatory resources only the worst crimes against humanity van ever be prosecuted by the ICC and then only if the suspected individual is a citizen of a State Party to the ICC Statute.

Ratified by 122 countries, including all of South America, almost all of Europe, most of Oceania, and about half of Africa, the Rome Statute has only been signed (and not ratified) by the United States, who further informed the United Nations that they do not intend to become a state party. Opposed to the empowerment of an international court that could try U.S. military and political leaders under international law, the US maintains observer status as a non-ratifying country during the Assembly of States Parties.

Most recently, and in response to attacks on heritage by terrorist organizations, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2347 on 24 March 2017 in order to strengthen protections for heritage during armed conflicts where they are most vulnerable. This resolution, enacted by the 15-member council, of which the US is a permanent member, univocally condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage in the context of armed conflicts, notably by terrorist groups, however not exclusively.  This UN resolution also affirms that attacks against cultural heritage might constitute a war crime and therefore perpetrators must be brought to justice. In drafting this resolution the UN Security Council stated that the protection of heritage is a key means for the maintenance of international peace and security and noted how intimately cultural heritage and identity are linked.

That being said, the exigencies of war will always be unkind to mankind's cultural heritage where the atrocities (and ultimate persecutions) of one actor are not always balanced with those of their heritage destruction counterparts, simply based upon the previous pen strokes of their government's legal representatives.

The Pentagon’s two pronged interest in culture: What distinguishes data gathering for heritage preservation from espionage?

Despite the Pentagon’s October 2019 announcement that it would be reviving a version of one of World War II’s most storied military units, the teams of art experts once referred to as the Monuments Men, not everyone in the US military seems to be on the same page with the US President when it comes to the preservation of cultural heritage in zones of conflict and unrest.

US military, preparing to deploy, receiving training
on the 1954 Hague Convention and
the cultural heritage sites of Afghanistan.
The revised US military team, to be made up of Army Reserve officers serving under the Civil Affairs branch, aims to serve as a scholarly liaison for military commanders and the local authorities, helping to secure the cultural heritage in conflict zones. These reservists are also tasked with informing the United States military and allied forces of sites to avoid in the event of pending airstrikes or on the ground engagements in the event of war and conflict.

Ras Almargeb, Libya. 
Gadhafi forces stationed six mobile radar units
in proximity to this ancient Roman fort. All six
were destroyed with minimal damage
to the heritage site. Image Credit - Joris Kila
One has to wonder what those tasked with developing "No Strike" lists are thinking regarding President Trump's statements of suggested intentional destruction of cultural property, as part of an overall US military strategy, should Iran's government move to escalate tensions in an eye for an eye counterattack.

Did the US president envisage how such portending threats might place this new team on shaky ethical terrain, given that they cannot control the use of the ethnographic intelligence they collect for the military, and thus, cannot ensure their work isn’t used to harm the very heritage they are tasked with trying to protect?  Likewise, gaining the trust of neighboring Middle East countries, in sharing their own georeferencing data coordinates on cultural heritage sites with the US military, on the pretext of protecting culture property, probably just got a whole lot harder.

In closing, while some may see this Op Ed as a partisan article, that is truly not this writer's intention. This is an article which underscores the laws and instruments in place which sometimes hold individuals accountable for their actions and other times seem to be just grand wishes or written gestures that don't really adequately address the definition of the vexing question of ‘military necessity’ as it relates to cultural property destruction in the laws of armed conflict.  That grey area, subject to individual interpretation(s), often fails to impede those determined to weaponize culture and cultural fissures on the pretext of vanquishing one's enemies.

November 7, 2019

Thursday, November 07, 2019 - ,,,,, No comments

Exhibition commemorating the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht: Treasured Belongings: The Hahn Family & the Search for a Stolen Legacy


In commemoration of the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, the state-sponsored pogrom known as the “Night of Broken Glass” which took place November 9-10, 1938, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) is hosting an speaking engagement Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 7:00 pm featuring Dr. Michael Hayden, MC, OBC followed by the opening of a special exhibition which is then scheduled to remain at the centre for a little more than one year.

The event Kristallnacht Commemoration and Dr. Hayden's talk will be streamed online on Facebook tonight, November 7th at 7pm (PST).

Dates:  
November 8, 2019 – November 27, 2020
Location:  
Wosk Auditorium, Jewish Community Centre Greater Vancouver
950 West 41 Avenue
VANCOUVER, BC October 23, 2019

The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) is an acclaimed teaching museum devoted to Holocaust based anti-racism education.  

Treasured Belongings: The Hahn Family & the Search for a Stolen Legacy brings together items from the Hahn archive alongside rich artefacts to detail the story of the family, their collection, and their descendants’ restitution efforts and exhibition speaks to timely themes of cultural loss, reconciliation and intergenerational legacy.

During Kristallnacht hundreds of synagogues in Germany and Austria were burned, Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed, nearly 100 Jews were killed and 30,000 were sent to concentration camps.

Kristallnacht was a turning point in the Nazi persecution of European Jews and a defining moment for Max and Gertrud Hahn of Göttingen, Germany. 

Born in Göttingen, Germany in 1880, Max Hahn was a successful businessman, civic leader and passionate collector.  The Hahn’s Judaica collection was one of the most significant private collections in pre-war Europe, rivalling those of the Rothschild and Sassoon families. During the Kristallnacht pogrom, Max was arrested, and the Nazis proceeded to confiscate his silver Judaica and strip the family of their property and possessions. 

With the support of his wife, Gertrud, Max engaged in a lengthy battle to retrieve his stolen collection. While their children, Rudolf (later Roger Hayden) and Hanni, were sent to England for safety in 1939, Max and Gertrud were deported to Riga in December 1941, where they ultimately perished. Most of their collection was never recovered.

Roger’s son, Dr. Michael Hayden, MC, OBC, became immersed in his remarkable family history when he encountered photographs and documents left to him by his father. This original exhibition, developed by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, brings together items from the Hahn archive alongside rich artefacts and interviews to detail the story of the Hahn family, their collection, and their descendants’ restitution efforts. Involving extensive research and intensive negotiations with German museums and archives, the family’s ongoing search for their stolen collection speaks to timely themes of cultural loss, reconciliation and intergenerational legacy.

The Exhibition is supported by Michael and Sandy Hayden and children, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver, the Isaac and Sophie Waldman Endowment Fund of the Vancouver Foundation, Isaac and Judy Thau, Yosef Wosk, Audre Jackson, and the Goldie and Avrum Miller Memorial Endowment Fund of the VHEC.

The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) is Western Canada’s leading Holocaust teaching museum, reaching more than 25,000 students annually and producing acclaimed exhibitions, innovative school programs and teaching materials. The VHEC is a leader in Holocaust education in British Columbia, dedicated to promoting human rights, social justice and genocide awareness, and to teaching about the causes and consequences of discrimination, racism and antisemitism through education and remembrance of the Holocaust.

February 20, 2019

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Interview with open source intelligence analyst Sam Hardy


By Edgar Tijhuis

This year, the ARCA Postgraduate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection will be held from May 30 through August 15, 2019 in the beautiful heart of Umbria in Amelia, Italy. In the months leading up to the start of the program, I'm speaking with all course professors on the program as well as those who are guest lecturers or researching at ARCA. This week I speak with archaeologist and Open source intelligence analyst Sam Hardy, one of the trainers on the Countering Antiquities Trafficking in the Mashreq program in the Middle East, in which ARCA worked with UNESCO and other UNESCO partners to train heritage specialists working in the Middle East.


Can you tell us something about your background and work?

I did a BA in Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield, where I developed an interest in the relationship between archaeological practice and human rights in general and the past and present of South-Eastern Europe in particular. Then I did an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, where I started to focus on the treatment of cultural property during crisis and conflict.

During my MSc-DPhil at the University of Sussex, a series of accidents led me from attempting to explore peace education at historic sites in first Kosovo then Cyprus, to exploring destruction and propaganda and, since the crimes were interconnected, looting in Cyprus. As open-source research into destruction - like that done by Bellingcat - and particularly into trafficking is still an emerging field, there was no career path to follow, at least not one that was defined.

Still, I developed a specialism in open-source research (that pieces together new understandings from disparate, publicly-accessible sources), focused on conflict antiquities trafficking (trafficking of, and other profiteering from, cultural goods that finance political violence), connected with ARCA - and collaborated with Lynda Albertson in checking claims of damage to sites in Syria and Iraq - then got contracts from the American University of Rome, Global Witness, UNESCO and ICOM followed by fellowships from Koç University in Turkey and UCL Qatar.

I would like to note, it was only thanks to the support of friends from the Institute of Archaeology, and the women who've been my bosses throughout my career, that I managed to stay in the profession. For women who are considering a career in this field, they should know that they would be joining a rich history of "trowelblazers", are the majority in archaeology and heritage and are earning the same as men.

All of this has somehow led me to the dream job that I'm about to start at the Norwegian Institute in Rome, within the Heritage Experience Initiative of the University of Oslo, where I'm going to be the Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Cultural Heritage and Conflicts. Over the next three years, I'm going to explore the relationship between antiquities trafficking and political violence in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, from the politics of policing, to the involvement of organised criminals and armed groups (including state forces), to the exploitation of the refugee crisis, and to the deployment of propaganda.

What do you do at ARCA?

I've been fortunate enough to work with ARCA on the Countering Antiquities Trafficking in the Mashreq training through UNESCO for cultural heritage professionals and law enforcement agents from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, which has helped local efforts to combat trafficking across the region. I also co-taught one of the courses in 2018 on open source research methods.  When I'm not indulging my interest in the most bizarre features of the subject, like Russian propaganda, I've also been able to collaborate with others in and through ARCA to find and check evidence in ongoing research.

In anticipation of the ARCA program, what book, article, or movie would you recommend to participants?

One academic article I'd recommend is "uncovering the illicit traffic of Russian ancient icons from Russia to Germany" by Laure Coupillaud Szustakowski, who took the ARCA programme and whose paper I first heard at the ARCA conference. Some of my work depends on risky journalism. I would recommend Özgen Acar and Melik Kaylan's investigations into organised crime in Turkey and beyond from 1988 and 1990 (in English), which I still use now, but they're only really accessible as difficult-to-read archive copies. More recent investigations include those by Esther Saoub and her colleagues on looting in Syria (in German), by Mike Giglio and Munzer al-Awad on trafficking out of Syria (in English), by Benoit Faucon and his colleagues on dealing in antiquities from Syria (in English) and by Frédéric Loore on the ransoming of stolen works of art by the terrorists who attacked Paris and Brussels (in French).

Which course in the program would you love to follow yourself and why?

I've had the chance to listen and learn when Dick Drent and Dick Ellis co-taught during the ARCA-UNESCO training with me. Despite focusing on different parts of the trade in different countries and using different methods, Christos Tsirogiannis and I have developed a common interest in certain shady characters, so it'd be great to hear him explain the intricacies of his work.

Is there anything you can recommend for future participants to do in Amelia or Umbria? 

Amelia is a foodie treat for me and I'm not even a foodie. Not eating dairy can really limit your options, especially in Italy, but the Amerini (the name for local town folk) make allergy-friendly food that tastes great - and I once got to be the sous-chef for a Syrian-Iraqi feast. I'd get in trouble with one friend or another for suggesting Spritz, either because it's from Venice or because it dilutes Prosecco, but I can safely and sincerely recommend the local wines.

What is your experience with the yearly ARCA conference in June. 

There's always interesting research, new contacts and old friends - I look forward to it every year.


For a detailed prospectus and application materials or for general questions about this postgraduate program please contact us at education@artcrimeresearch.org


Edgar Tijhuis serves as the Academic Director at ARCA and is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana. He is responsible for the postgraduate certificate program in the study of art crime and cultural heritage protection and since 2009, has taught criminology modules within the ARCA program.

February 8, 2019

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Judge Tompkins returns to Amelia to this summer to teach "Art Crime in War” at ARCA's Postgraduate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection

By Edgar Tijhuis
This year, the ARCA Postgraduate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection will be held from May 30 through August 14, 2019 in the beautiful heart of Umbria in Amelia, Italy. In the months leading up to the start of the program, this year’s professors will be interviewed. In this one, I am speaking with Arthur Tompkins from New Zealand, a judge and specialist on art crimes during war.



Can you tell us something about your background and work?

Certainly! I am a Judge in New Zealand, based in Wellington. In my day job I try both criminal and civil cases, plus I sit on the NZ Parole Board. I have been a judge for over 20 years now, and I still enjoy my job. I like the variety, the unexpectedness of each day, and the interaction with the whole cross-section of the community I serve.

I have been coming to teach Art in War, at Amelia, since 2010. I first visited in 2009, when the first ARCA program was underway, to present at the Art Crime Conference, Noah Charney asked me to come back the next year to teach my course, and the rest is history...

What do you feel is the most relevant part of your course? 

I like to think that over the five days of my course - first the historical survey when we cover 25 centuries of armed conflict, from the Classical World through to Iraq and Syria, and many conflicts in between, and then the response of the international and private legal systems to what has occurred - discerning the common features of the arc of art crime in war are very relevant. The ways in which, during war, art is displaced, lost, destroyed, stolen, and sometimes saved, vary enormously in their individual circumstances, but underlying the variety is the sameness of it: the intensely symbolic way in which art is viewed by combatants, who seek to use (or destroy) art to serve their wider purpose. So, despite the variation of circumstances, there are common features which happen over and over again - hence the need to learn the lessons of history, and to protect the art anew in the face of every new conflict.

What do you hope participants will get out of your course? 

I hope that by the end of the course the participants will have an appreciation both of the wide sweep of human history, as manifested by humankind's many conflicts, and against that backdrop the way that humankind's great art has been fought over, pursued, made vulnerable, and (perhaps not as often as we would like) made secure so that it survives the tempest swirling around it. And I hope that, when faced with the outbreak of a new conflict, thy will come to realise that the inevitable threat to the art caught up by the red-hot rake of the battle-line is not new, that there are valuable lessons to be learned from past mistakes, and that the art can, with effort and determination and will, be protected despite the clash of arms surrounding it.

 What would a typical day be like in your classroom? 

We gather in the lecture hall at the start time of the day, usually with copious bottles of water and perhaps a coffee or two, and embark on a close look at whatever part of human history we have reached that day. This will usually be done via illustrated lectures from me, interspersed with short student presentations about a number of the major art works we encounter during the day. A week or so before my class starts, I ask each participant to sign up to talk to the class about one or two artworks that we will touch on or discuss during the course. Sometimes the participants will already know about the work, perhaps they have seen it, or have some personal connection to it, other times they will come to it completely fresh. Their presentations usually summarise the history of the work and the artist, perhaps talking a bit about the place the work has in the artist's oeuvre, and what happened to it during the war that engulfed it.

We have five hours of class time each day, with that being broken up by coffee (or gelato) breaks, and a long lunch break in the heat of the middle of the day. So, although it is an intense few days, we enjoy frequent time out to recharge! During the course, each participant completes a short essay, on some aspect of art crime during war. The last part of the course is then taken up with individual students giving slightly longer presentations to the class when they talk about the essay they submitted, the art work or works, the fate of the works during war, the story of their survival, or whatever it might be. I am constantly fascinated by the wide variety of subjects they come up with each year, to research and write about.

While each year participants are very enthusiastic about your course, is there anything you learn from them in class?

The most valuable thing is that I learn to look at art with new eyes, especially during the participant presentations. Often these will cover aspects of art crime during war that we do not have time to cover in class, or only touch upon very briefly. I learn a lot during these presentations, and come away with a fresh respect for the research skills and breadth of experience of ARCA's attendees!

In anticipation of your courses, what book, article, or movie would you recommend to participants?

There have been two high-profile movies in the last few years which have been based squarely on the fate of art in war. Both are worth watching before taking my course, but for different reasons. George Clooney's Monuments Men got most of the art right, but a lot of the rest of the always fascinating story of the Monuments Men (and Women) mostly wrong. Helen Mirren's Woman in Gold did much better - getting both the art, and the surrounding tragedy of the very human story of the painting's fate (within the inevitable constraints of a two hour movie), right.

 What makes the yearly ARCA program so unique? 

There are a number of aspects, I think, that make the ARCA course unique. First, the setting - the wonderful ancient town of Amelia, slightly isolated because of the absence of a railway station, is the perfect setting for a summer programme - small enough to get to know very quickly, but with a labyrinthine Old Town that constantly surprising no matter how often you have walked its twisting and turning streets and alleys and tunnels and stairs. There is always something fresh and surprising around the next corner! The town has a rhythm to its daily life that quickly propels both those involved in the ARCA program into the centre of Italian town life - the casual friendliness of the locals, the evening passeggiata, the always-open (or so its seems) cafes and bars that are so central to the community's life, and the beauty of the ancient surroundings.

Then there is the multidisciplinary faculty, drawn from a very wide spectrum of disciplines and areas of expertise, who bring decades of experience and wisdom to their respective courses. And finally there is the distilling of what, in any other setting, might be a year or more of classes, into an intense and concentrated period of time spent in Amelia - where everyone in the course is there because they really want to be there, sharing a common fascination with art and the crimes committed against it, and where everyone you meet is happy to share and to learn.

Which other course in the program would you love to follow yourself and why? 

Personally, I would be fascinated by the Museum Security course - one of the by-products of teaching art crime is that you can't just visit a museum or a gallery or an exhibition without thinking about what might happen if someone else took it into their heads to commit a crime against the art you are enjoying - a theft or an attack or some other misguided venture. So I often wonder about the unseen protections that (I hope) carefully guard the art work...and the striking of the difficult balance between accessibility - making the art open and accessible and able to be enjoyed by many visitors - and protection, which often means compelling visitors to step back and not enjoy the up-close-and-personal experience of the art that might otherwise be possible, is a dynamic and ever-changing challenge that I would love to know more about.

Is there anything you can recommend for future participants to do in Amelia or Umbria? 

Learn at least some rudimentary Italian before you arrive, enough to say hello and good morning and good evening, and to order coffee and gelato and pizza! And use that to get to know some of the locals, and experience something of their lives. I now have friends who live in Amelia, and catching up with them is one of the annual joys of my visits back to Amelia.

Judge Arthur Tompkins' writing on the
Four Horses of the Basilica of San Marco
made its way into Dan Brown's bestseller, Inferno.
Are there any funny or interesting things you experienced in Italy, outside class? 

The Italian railway system is a constant source of enjoyment, frustration, annoyance, wonder and humour, that almost never disappoints! And a visit to Venice, whilst we still can, is high on my list of recommendations - it is such an irrational and unexpected place, that should not exist, but defiantly does, and it hides a multitude of joys. Not the least of which are the Four Horses of the Basilica of San Marco, the artwork with the longest history of crimes being committed against them (roughly 2500 years, give or take a few centuries). Come take my course to learn their fascinating story!  Venice was also the home of the largest stolen painting on public display anywhere in the world - Veronese's Wedding at Cana, taken from the refectory of the Benedictine monastery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore by Napoleon, transported to the Louvre (after being cut into several pieces), and hung there, up until recently, opposite the Mona Lisa, where it used to get overlooked by thousands every day!

What is your experience with the yearly ARCA conference in June?

I can't always get to the conference, but when I do the sheer breadth of experience and knowledge on display year after year is wonderful - ARCA does a great job of gathering together the foremost specialists in the fight against art crime from around the world, and provides a forum for both specialist presentations, and the free exchange of information, of views, of contacts, and renewing and making friendships. And because the conference is based in Amelia, the warmth of the welcome from the town is an added highlight - and introducing newcomers to the joys of Amelia, and discovering new joys in the process, is always memorable!


For a detailed prospectus and application materials or for general questions about this postgraduate program please contact us at education@artcrimeresearch.org


Edgar Tijhuis serves as the Academic Director at ARCA and is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana. He is responsible for the postgraduate certificate program in the study of art crime and cultural heritage protection and since 2009, has taught criminology modules within the ARCA program.

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