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September 23, 2015

Details on the Getty and Armenian Church Agreement Over Stolen Bible Pages

Image Credit: J. Paul Getty Museum
In June 2010 the La Crescenta-based Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, filed a $105-million lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. Through attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan,  the church's filing claimed that the museum illegally purchased eight detached illustrated pages that were once part of a 750 year old sacred Bible, that had been stolen from its rightful owner, the Catholicosate of Cilicia, during the gravest days of the Armenian Genocide sometime between 1915-1923.

The illustrations, known collectively as the Zet’un Gospels Canon Tables, were loaned anonymously by Gil Atamian to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York for their exhibition "Treasures in Heaven : Armenian illuminated manuscripts" in 1994 and were acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, for an undisclosed sum from the same collector, the same year. Gil Atamian is said to have inherited the Canon Tables upon the death of his uncle, Nazareth Atamian in 1980, who in turn had acquired them from his father Melkon Atamian who brought them with him when he emigrated to the United States.

The Zet’un Gospels, of which the Canon Tables are part, were made in 1256 in the scriptorium of Hṙomkla for the Armenian High Patriarch, or Catholicos, Constantine I by T’oros Roslin, an Armenian manuscript illuminator during the High Middle Ages. This illuminated manuscript is one of only seven known manuscripts to have been preserved that bear the accomplished illustrator's signature. Aside from the Canon Table pages, the remaining portion of the Zet'un Gospels form part of the extensive collection at the Matenadaran's Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan, Armenia.

Prior to its disappearance, the Zet'un Gospels had once been housed at the Church in Zeyt’un in eastern Anatolia, what is now also called Süleymanli, Turkey.  The sacred manuscript was believed to symbolically provide the city's Armenian citizens with protection and was exhibited in the Zeyt'un streets during times of unrest.  Unfortunately, in World War I most of the city's inhabitants were ultimately deported and largely exterminated during the genocide of the Ottoman Armenians.

Despite being caught in the vagaries of art provenance during war, the Getty Museum has always maintained that it purchased the Canon Tables legally stating in their answer to the complaint that sometime prior to the early 1920s, the Zet'un Gospels had become the property of Melkon Atamian who, like many Armenians during that period had emigrated to the United States in 1923 and eventually settling in Massachusetts.

The Armenian Bar Association in its Winter 2015 newsletter states that a Turkish man found
the Zeytun Gospels and brought them to Melkon Atamian in Marash for him to sell,   The article states that Atamian cut away eight folios or sixteen pages bearing the Canon Tables and returned the manuscript to the Turkish individual stating that he did not want to handle it.

Court documents filed by the J. Paul Getty Museum collaborate that Melkon Atamian himself removed the Gospel’s Canon Tables from the manuscript but differ in whom he returned the remainder of the manuscript to, stating that he entrusted the remainder of the Gospel to an American missionary by the name of "Lyman".

Examined records researched in relation to the case state that somewhere around 1928 a Dr. Liman (or Lyme or Lyman) reportedly sent word to the "Zeyt’im Companiotio Union" in Aleppo, informing them that he was in possession of the "Zeyt‘un Bible" in Marash and was ready to transfer the text to them. Through a series of complicated passages in or about 1947-1948, Catholicos Karekin who served as the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church sent the Zeyt’un Gospel to Dr. H. Der Ghazarian in Aleppo to authenticate its provenance.   The Bible - once authenticated was then sent back to the Catholicosate noting that it was minus the illustrated Canon Table pages.

It is interesting to note that the Catholicosate documentation regarding the Zeyt‘un Bible speaks of the missing pages, but makes no mention of Melkon Atamian, "the unnamed Turk" or to whom Dr. Liman, Lyme, Lyman obtained the manuscript from or under what circumstances.  Records note only that the pages had been ripped from the manuscript or stolen from it and that no culprit was ever identified.

The J. Paul Getty page highlighting the Canon Tables which can be viewed here makes no mention of the documents contested collection history.

That being said a settlement between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America has been reached and announced with much fanfare on Monday September 21, 2015.

Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum stated in part

"the Getty acknowledges the Armenian Apostolic Church’s ownership of the eight 13th Century manuscript pages. “That the pages were saved from destruction and conserved in a museum all these years means that these irreplaceable representations of Armenia’s rich artistic heritage have been and will be preserved for future generations,”

While the agreement acknowledges the Church’s historical ownership of the Canon Tables, the Armenian Apostolic Church has agreed to donate the pages to the Getty Museum in order to ensure their preservation and widespread exhibition.  In a carefully worded joint statement the Church gives recognition to the Getty’s decades-long stewardship of the Canon Tables and its deep understanding and appreciation of Armenian art.

The agreement between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America can be read in its entirety here.

By Lynda Albertson

September 20, 2015

Sunday, September 20, 2015 - ,, No comments

Lest We Forget Yemen - Update on Airstrikes on UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Old City of Sana'a


Smoke billows following airstrikes in the capital of
Sana’a on August 20, 2015.
(Image Credit: AFP / Mohammed Huwais)
In one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in months, aid workers and witnesses report that air raids on Saturday, September 19 led by Saudi-led coalition warplanes,  killed at least 30 in Yemen's capital city of Sana’a.  Ten of the dead were members of the same family, killed in the Al-Falihi neighbourhood in the city's old town. 

The Local Council of Sana’a called on all UN agencies and regional and Arab organizations, as well as UNESCO, to denounce Saudi-led airstrikes against the Old City of Sana’a and to work diligently to find a resolution, condemning the ongoing attacks against the city. 

Oman’s Sultanate, through the Foreign Ministry, also summoned Eid Mohammed Al Thaqafi, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia and handed him a written letter of protest demanding an explanation after an alliance’s air strike targeted the residence of the Omani ambassador yesterday in the southern neighbourhood of Hadda, a southwestern neighbourhood of Sana'a. 

Oman's objection memo read



According to Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat, military spokesman, Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Asiri, said the coalition had targeted the Yemeni Interior Ministry building and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, not the Omani ambassador's residence. In addition to the Omani residence and the Interior Ministry building, the overnight sorties struck a police station, the presidential complex of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and a party building.  The presidential complex had already been damaged in 2011, injuring Saleh and killing several others.

Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly denouncing Saturday’s incident and requesting that the United Nations undertake measures for ending the war in Yemen before it becomes a serious threat to the security of the region. Oman is the singular Gulf state that does not belong to the Saudi-led coalition and has offered to host planned UN-mediated peace talks between the government and rebels.

Sana'a is the largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sana'a Governorate. Inhabited for more than 2,500 years, Sana'a old city is an UNESCO World Heritage Site noted for its many-storeyed tower-houses built using pisé de terre, an ancient rammed earth method of construction that dates back to at least 7000 BCE in Pakistan.    Prior to becoming the latest victim of unrest the city of Sana'a hosted 103 mosques, 14 hammams and over 6,000 houses, all built before the 11th century. 

Dr. Iris Gerlach, a specialist in the archaeology of southern Arabia and director of the Sana’a Branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has provided UNESCO with a “no-strike” list of all the important archaeological sites in Yemen to forward on to the Saudi government.  She conceded 


On September 01, 2015, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 6,631 civilian casualties, including 2,112 civilian deaths, and 4,519 wounded since the start of the conflict in Yemen escalated in March 2015.

Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and Jennifer Welsh, UN Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, issued a statement September 15th on the situation in Yemen expressing concern at the ever increasing impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict and the virtual silence of the international community about the threat to populations.

As we continue to destroy the past, we are losing the future. 

By: Lynda Albertson, 



September 18, 2015

Friday, September 18, 2015 - , No comments

What's the Difference between the ARCA Blog and The Journal of Art Crime?

  • Journal of Art Crime articles are PDF, while ARCAblog posts are HTML. 
  • Journal of Art Crime articles usually have a title, abstract, introduction, methods, results (or description), discussion/conclusions, and references. ARCAblog posts are often simple discussion and conclusions with hyperlinks and are frequently short-form. Blogposts are also designed to draw readers attention to current happenings in the field. 
  • ARCAblog posts might take an hour or two to write, whereas a Journal of Art Crime article might take weeks, months, or, if its a significant body of research, years. 
  • ARCA Blog posts allow and invite reader comments. JAC papers are commented on via academic citation in other academic papers. 
  • Journal of Art Crime articles are immutable once published, whereas ARCAblog posts can, and often are updated after initial publication.
  • Journal of Art Crime articles are archived by the publisher, whereas ARCAblog posts are hosted on Blogger which may be more ephemeral as blog posts are impermanent and can be deleted. 
  • Journal of Art Crime articles are peer-reviewed, whereas ARCAblog posts are not.

Lastly the ARCABlog has been designed to be Open Access (OA) meaning ARCA gives readers free unrestricted online access to what it posts.  ARCA's Journal of Art Crime is available by subscription, as the act of publishing research has an intrinsic cost.  Through subscription fees JAC subscribers help facilitate and promote global communication of academic research and discourse in the field of art crime. 

Want to know more about the Journal of Art Crime? 

The Journal of Art Crime has been published in print and digital format by the Association for Research into Crimes against Art since Spring 2009.   Published twice per year during the Autumn and Spring,  the JAC is edited by Noah Charney, Marc Balcells and Christos Tsirogiannis. Each issue contains a select mixture of peer-reviewed academic articles, regular columns, editorials, and book reviews from contributors actively involved within the art crime and heritage protection sectors.  

More formal than the ARCAblog, the Journal of Art Crime seeks to identify emerging and under-examined trends related to art crime and to develop strategies that advocate for the responsible stewardship of our collective artistic and archaeological heritage.

Interested in Subscribing?  

If you are interested in a personal or institutional subscription to the Journal of Art Crime please click on the sidebar "Contact Us" link and the ARCAblog editors will forward your request to our counterparts so that they can email you the costs in your area for institutional or personal print and eSubscriptions. 

Interested in Becoming a Journal of Art Crime Contributor?

The Editorial Board of the Journal of Art Crime welcomes the submission of well researched articles for consideration.  All submissions are expected to be appropriately annotated and referenced and should be submitted free from errors.   JAC submission guidelines can be found here along with a listing of the Table of Contents and article titles for past issues. 

General questions and inquiries about the Journal of Art Crime should be addressed to the JAC's editors. 



September 13, 2015

Sunday, September 13, 2015 - ,, No comments

Carmen Sandiego: celebrating 30 years of (fictional) art crime

Copyright 1994, DIC Entertainment/Program Exchange
By Hal Johnson, ARCA 2014 alum and ARCA Blog Contributor

What was your first introduction to art crime? It might be earlier than you think. If you grew up in the 1980’s and 90’s, chances are that Carmen Sandiego was the first art thief you ever heard of. The fictional star of the eponymous computer game and TV franchise, this trench-coat clad femme mystérieux (Figure 1) has been stealing the world’s treasures – and educating on the lam – for thirty years now.

Copyright 1989, Broderbund Software
Copyright 1989, Broderbund Software
The hunt began in 1985 with the release of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? by Brøderbund Software. Brøderbund’s products helped establish the home computer as the premier medium for electronic educational content. Sequels like Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? soon followed. The premise changed little throughout the series; players are investigators for the ACME Detective Agency, dedicated to catching Carmen and her V.I.L.E. organization of world class thieves. You travel the globe, gathering geographical or historical clues from witnesses in order to track down the culprit (Figures 2 and 3). The earliest versions of the software included hard copy reference materials like Fodor’s Travel Guide. The series is remembered for its whimsical array of nefarious ne’er-do-wells: Patty Larceny, Lynn Gweeny, Ken Hartley Reed, and Sarah Nade to name a few. Players must also collect personal details about the suspects (male/female, hair and eye color, favorite food/hobbies/sports/authors) to compile a warrant for their arrest.

Copyright 1985, Broderbund Software
At a glance this many seem like a cleverly themed geography bee. But it is much more than simply memorizing countries and their capitals. The Carmen Sandiego franchise actually educates kids in a unique and exciting way – through art crime! Carmen and her V.I.L.E. henchmen are no ordinary thieves. If world geography is the setting, theft of cultural heritage is the plot device. At the beginning of each case, players receive alerts such as “George Washington's axe stolen by masked female.” A gargoyle from Notre Dame Cathedral was one of the stolen items in the original 1985 computer game (Figure 4). Museum-quality treasures are not the only pilfered items. Fantastically large monuments and even natural heritage sites are targeted as well: “Pueblo Bonito stolen from North America in 950 AD,” or “Crater Lake stolen by masked male.” The game teaches players where these treasures are from as well as their cultural and historical significance. And ACME’s cases are closed with a simpler ending than we often see in the real world – Carmen’s loot is always returned to its place of origin. 

Photo courtesy of WQED, WGBH, New Yor
The computer games’ commercial success spawned three television series that all aired in the 1990’s. I fondly remember watching Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? in middle school and singing along with its theme song performed by Rockapella. In keeping with the creators’ witty humor, one episode called “Art So Nice they Stole it Twice” featured a fictional theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The original PBS game show (Figure 5) and its sequel both starred Tony Award winner Lynne Thigpen as ACME’s Chief. An animated Saturday morning cartoon was also produced with stage and screen legend Rita Moreno as the voice of Carmen. Since the 2000’s, new editions of Carmen’s capers have been released on video games consoles like Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii. And the adventure continues! In 2015 Carmen Sandiego Returns was released for download on Windows 8, thirty years after she first became an international fugitive.
Did Carmen Sandiego imprint the image of the glamorous art thief on an entire generation of kids, myself included? Arguably so. What is certain is that she revolutionized at-home edutainment. To my knowledge, the art thief image had never before been used as a gimmick to teach kids basic facts about the world. Certainly not on such a large scale. It is lucky for new generations of youngsters that she has managed to remain at large all these years. Her current publisher sums up her future (not to mention ARCA’s mission) perfectly: “Will we ever catch Carmen? Who knows? Will we ever stop trying? Never! Why? Because through the pursuit we learn!” 


September 8, 2015

Charley Hill, Dick Ellis, and the Recovery of Paintings Stolen Six Years Ago

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor

Museum Security Network sent out a link to an article in the United Kingdom's The Daily Mail about the recovery of stolen art: "Millions of pounds worth of paintings stolen from the country mansion of cider heir found by 'The Scream' sleuth".

The Scream referred to in this article is the painting by Edvard Munch stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994 and the subject of Edward Dolnick's 2006 book The Rescue Artist (which won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime). The back of the book describes the investigation:
Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police turned to the one man they believed could help: a half English, half American undercover cop named Charley Hill, the world's greatest art detective... a complicated mix of brilliance, foolhardiness, and charm whose hunt for a purloined treasure would either cap an illustrious career or be the fiasco that would haunt him forever.
I have never met Charley Hill (here's a link to some background on Hill and The Scream), but over the years we have corresponded via email on subjects related to art crime that have been covered on this blog (such as this). So I shot off an email to Mr. Hill and asked for his comment. He responded that Dick Ellis would be the best person to quote because "it was his job" and that the recovery of the artworks taken from the Somerset estate of Esmond and Susie Bulmer had nothing to do with Hill's work in recovering "The Scream".

Dick Ellis is the retired founder of The Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiquities Squad at New Scotland Yard in London.  He is also an annual lecturer with ARCA's Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. Emma Jones wrote about Ellis for The Financial Times in 2013 and CBC Radio interviewed him here. Ellis wrote an email today for the ARCA blog:
The recovery of the Bulmer's stolen paintings again focuses attention on to the increasing role of the private sector in the investigation and recovery of stolen art, antiques and cultural property. With many countries facing a continuing period of austerity cut backs, their law enforcement agencies have seen even fewer police resources being devoted to this area of crime.

In this particular instance, the victims suffered the trauma of a violent robbery at the hands of five masked criminals who bound the house sitter to the stairs where she remained for some 18 hours. The loss was substantial and included jewellery, sculpture ,and a canteen of silver cutlery in addition to the 16 paintings valued together at £2 million.

Whilst the police response to such a violent crime was swift, the investigation was uncertain as to the direction it should take.The lack of understanding of the commodity, stolen fine art and antiques, is common to many law enforcement agencies and not just to those in the UK underlining the lack of training that police receive in this subject.

In 2010, a year after the theft, the victims and their insurers turned to the private sector for help as it was here that they could utilise the services of professional art crime consultants and investigators. 

Working with the police but independently of them, I was able to revitalise an investigation that had lost both direction and police resources. With regular progress reports the police were able to continue to develop their investigation without devoting vast resources to the enquiry, leaving them free to attend to the day to day pressures of policing.

In June 2015, whilst I was lecturing to the ARCA students in Italy, Charley Hill took a telephone call from a friendly journalist and was introduced to her source who was willing to share the information he had. On my return to the UK, Charley introduced me to the intermediary and we were then able to work together to achieve the recovery of the stolen paintings.  

The recovery required working with the insurers, their lawyers and with the police and provides a model of how art recovery in the future will depend far more on the resources and expertise of the private sector working in partnership with law enforcement.

The inside story of the this recovery will form the basis of the lecture on the future of art recovery to be given during the 2016 ARCA course in Amelia, Italy which will also look at the authentication and forensic examination of stolen art.
In 2016, Ellis will be teaching "The High Stakes World of Art Policing, Protection and Investigation" June 8-10 and June 13-15 in Amelia, Umbria. You may find out more about ARCA and the postgraduate certificate program in Italy here.

Destroying and Protecting the World’s Shared Cultural Heritage: Iconoclasm and Psychological Warfare

By Dr. Joris D. Kila
Heritage Researcher,  Lt. Col. (retired), International Military Cultural Resources Working Group and Senior Researcher, Centre for Cultural Heritage Protection, University of Vienna
The Hague, Netherlands

The world’s shared cultural heritage is under threat. Substantial damage has already been inflicted during armed conflicts that have taken place or are still ongoing, especially in parts of Africa and the Middle East.  To protect the world's heritage, it is important to gain knowledge about key concepts and mechanisms that underpin heritage destruction and protection including new phenomena, stakeholders and concepts such as urbicide (a term which literally translates as "violence against the city."), the military roll in heritage destruction and or preservation and the psychological warfare of heritage destruction.

Libya Appolonia artifacts hidden during the revolution November 2011
(c) photo Joris Kila
‘Cultural property’ that is, the legal term used  to describe the world's cultural heritage, is currently not only threatened by time, nature, and man-made development, but increasingly by armed conflicts and upheavals. In this context we see the return of iconoclasm driven and legitimised as an excuse for eliminating perceptions of heresy as well as the ‘’recycling’’ of antique monuments originally built as defence works like the Crusader castle, Krak de Chevaliers, Palmyra’s Fakhr-al-Din al-Ma'ani Castle or the now destroyed Temple of Bel in Palmyra which the Burids transformed into a citadel in 1132.

But Iconoclasm is not only directed at immovable heritage, it also aimed at written heritage making manuscripts and books equally at risk. The majority of today's warring parties are guilty of abuse and destruction whether intentionally or by accident, disregarding that cultural property is ‘’protected’’ under (inter)national laws. To make matters worse there has been an increase in the looting and illicit traffic of artefacts, the revenues of which are used to finance, and thus extend conflicts.

A museum guard displays a manuscript burnt by fleeing occupation forces
 at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Mali.
Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters © The Guardian
There is a distinction between material and non-material heritage. Materials are, for instance, sculptures and paintings but also libraries, archives, monuments and archaeological sites. Immaterial, also referred to as intangible heritage, includes languages, national anthems, and historic traditions. All heritage is strongly connected with identities and therefore potentially politically and socially sensitive especially in connection with conflict and disputes.

Within this framework, written heritage has a dual status: libraries, archives and manuscripts are material cultural properties but simultaneously carriers of intangible heritage like ideas and by extension, identity. Dualism can be seen too in overlaps between cultural and natural heritage, such as cultural landscapes like Ayers Rock and in ivory that is often smuggled.

In general terms books and documents can be considered to be containers of identity. Simultaneously the material manifestation of a book or manuscript can be an artifact or a sacred and thus religiously sensitive object. Specifically, archives can contain cultural heritage for a national society or smaller community as well as information that makes them strategic targets for the warring parties e.g. working archives can hold tactical information about persons and political issues. Military experts connect this information with military intelligence.  Additionally, libraries and archives themselves can be historic monuments.

Apart from the fragile characteristics there are many more issues within the realms of heritage. They include shifting insights on conservation, restoration, authentication (forgeries) and developments concerning digitization, manipulation, political propaganda, illicit trafficking, and legislation. Current attacks on cultural heritage show elements of psychological warfare, cultural genocide and, as acknowledged by the United Nations, war crimes.

This makes Cultural Property Protection (CPP) a complicated multi-disciplinary topic with stakeholders that include the military, police, diplomats, legal specialists, auctioneers, antique dealers, and religious experts to name a few, all of which represent and defend their own interests. Transnational crime is also present, not to mention collateral damage inflicted during battle.

Considering the complexity and the seriousness of today’s heritage conditions it seems fair to acknowledge that safeguarding issues cannot be taken care of by only as small number of cultural experts or enthusiasts who are not afraid to be pro-active and often need to act as private individuals. The main concern is that there is presently no operational protection concept being implemented based on international cooperation and coordination. Legal obligations and sanctions are not sufficiently implemented and enforced – for instance,  some cultural war crimes could and should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Although there are moral and legal obligations, funding is not in place for CPP training, education, research, and the deployment of ‘’new’’ stakeholders like the military who are equipped to operate in war zones.  Most contemporary asymmetric conflicts in which (written) heritage is endangered take place in the Muslim World. A lot of the world’s heritage from antiquity is located there but it is also critical to pay special attention to protection and restoration of Islamic heritage before the cultural and historical memory rooted in these regions is erased from the world’s common consciousness and lost to future generations.

To meet some of these challenges, the Islamic Manuscript Association in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has organised a course this coming October entitled Manuscript Collections in Conflict Zones: Safeguarding Written Heritage. This multidisciplinary course will also gives a general introduction about Cultural Property Protection and destruction in the event of conflict. The course will take place October 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall, London.

Confirmed speakers include:

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos,
Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan

Mr. Marco Di Bella,
Freelance Book and Manuscript Conservator and UNESCO Consultant

Mr. Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen,
President of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield

Dr. Joris Kila, Chairman,
International Military Cultural Resources Working Group

Professor Roger O’Keefe,
Chair of Public International Law, University College London

Mr András Riedlmayer,
Bibliographer in Islamic Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Professor Franck Salameh,
Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Boston College

Dr Christos Tsirogiannis,
Research Assistant, Trafficking Culture Team, University of Glasgow

Dr Hafed Walda,
(Pending) Deputy Ambassador to the permanent Libyan delegation at UNESCO

Dr James Zeidler,
Associate Director for Cultural Resources, Colorado State University

For information about course lecturers and how to register to attend, please contact the Islamic Manuscript Association linked here

In Homage to Zenobia, 3rd century Queen of Palmyra, Her Statue is Erected in Umayyad Square, Damascus.

Image Credit: SANA
In defiance to the destruction and havoc being wrecked in Palmyra, an imposing statute of Queen Zenobia, the 3rd century queen of Palmyra, has been erected in Damascus at Umayyad Square where it will be on display for the next four days.

The statue represents a component of  the “From Palmyra to Damascus” activity held during the 5th Forum of Arts and Innovation which has been organised by Syria's Ministry of Tourism.  In response to the event's inauguration tourism minister Bisher Yazigi released a press statement regarding the events saying in part that “life in Syria cannot be brought to a standstill despite raging war.”


During the heritage-based forum, the statue of Zenobia will be installed next to another representing Dr.  Khaled al-Asaad, the prominent archeologist who was the director of antiquities and director of the museum in Palmyra for 40 years until his retirement in 2003.  Dr al-Asaad was beheaded August 18, 2015 by Islamic State militants, in front of an assembled crowd, near the ancient ruins he spent his life studying and protecting.  He was 82 years old.

The Forum run through September 9th, and includes the photo exhibition presented in the film below on crimes against Syria’s cultural heritage and historical treasures, documentaries about the Syrian civilization, and a film highlighting the Dr. al-Asaad's work in Palmyra.








September 6, 2015

The Scream: 4 Versions, 2 Thefts, 1 Forced Sale


Expressionist artist Edvard Munch created four principle versions of Der Schrei der Natur, one of the world's most recognisable works of art.   Known in popular culture as The Scream, the artwork has become an agonised symbol of modern anxiety and alienation.

But how do you tell the differences between four of the world’s most talked about works of art when the dynamic composition and its enigmatic character remain so similar from version to version? Each of the works of art contain minor differences in the spectacular skyline, with figures in the background of a foot path, a prominent wooden railing and a view overlooking the peninsula extending into a fjord with a cityscape beyond.  But what truly sets these celebrity artworks apart from one another is the fact that two versions were stolen from different Norwegian museums in 1994 and 2004 and a third has been the subject of an ownership controversy that dates back to the Second World War. 

1893 Version - 35 3/4 by 28 7/8 Oil, Tempera, Pastels and Crayon on cardboard, with tell-tale wax drips in the lower right.

On February 12, 1994, two men climbed a ladder and smashed through a window to enter The Nationalgalleriet in Oslo.  Using wire cutters, the art thieves clipped the framed painting free from the wall and made a speedy getaway.

The painting was recovered on May 7, 1994 with the help of an undercover operation by British detectives.  Tony Russell, and Dick Ellis of New Scotland Yard's famed Art and Antiques Squad worked closely with Detective Charles Hill who posed as an American art dealer representing The Getty.

1892 Version - 29 1/8 by 22 in., Crayon on cardboard 
Some individuals argue that this version of The Scream is Munch’s first attempt at rendering his historic image.  Its unfinished elements present as a more preliminary work and is remarkable in that one of the figures in the background appears to be looking out towards the fjord. This version is housed at the Edvard Munch Museet (Munch Museum) of Oslo and is the only one of the four "Screams" to not have had a checkered past. 

1895 Version - 32 by 23 1/4 in. Pastel on board
Sold for $119,922,500 at Sotheby's on May 2, 2012 billionaire Leon Black's purchase set the record for the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction. Mr Black is a trustee of MoMA and The Met. 

This version is Munch's most vibrant and some consider it more valuable due to a handwritten inscription the artist wrote on its frame.  


1910 Version -  32 7/8 by 26 in., Tempera, Oil and Crayon
This version and "Madonna", another of Munch's iconic works, were snatched from the Munch Museet (Munch Museum) by two masked men dressed in black and brandishing guns, who forced museum staff to take the paintings down from the wall and hand them over.

When both artworks were recovered two years later, The Scream was found to have sustained worrisome damages.  Despite the efforts of conservators, who worked tirelessly to repair most of the damage, the bottom-left corner of the painting was left washed out and scarred by a dirty brown watermark. Some say the damage and the artwork's theft only add to its value. 

Perhaps envisioning the success of his artwork or a premonition about their popularity with thieves Munch created approximately thirty Der Schrei der Natur lithographs in 1895, all with black ink, most on either white or cream paper. 

To get an idea of what landscape inspired this iconic painting, one need only read the inscription etched into the frame of the 1895 version.  It reads "I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature. -TM"

Norwegians believe the artist was describing an overlook from a road called "Valhallveien" overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya from the vantage of Ekeberg Hill.  If you want to know where that is why not check out pop culture detective Bob Egan's fantastic website.  He has also pinpointed the exact spots where some of the most famous album covers of all time were photographed.

By Lynda Albertson

September 4, 2015

In Memoriam: The Heritage Community Speaks Out on Destruction in Syria and Iraq

It’s human nature to want to memorialise someone who has recently died. We want people to know who they were by allowing friends and family to come together and provide thoughts, insights and memories of the departed. 

From the beginning when the first news of heritage destruction in Syria and Iraq began making world headlines, individuals in the heritage protection community have been asked to give interviews, express their outrage, contribute analysis and provide commentary for numerous articles as the situation goes from first initial shock to resigned sadness at the continues destruction.

Unfortunately most of these comments give impact to specific incidences only or disappear as soon as the next new tragedy makes front page headlines.  None of these individual articles singularly conveys how deeply concerned the heritage community is about how this war has taken such an extreme toll on Syria and Iraq. 

In this space, ARCA will attempt to display some of the many statements and tributes given by heritage lovers on what has been lost and will link to their original sources when not directly submitted.  If you would like to contribute a new quote of 250 words or less please follow us on Twitter at @ARCA_artcrime or ARCA on Facebook and leave us your thoughts in a message and we will post it formally here.


“But the wanton destruction of archaeological sites and cultural monuments will continue so long as the global community continues to express shock and outrage each time it happens. The 
perpetrators want just such a reaction. If the destruction of objects and sites in 
Syria grab bigger headlines than the ongoing plight of the Syrians themselves, 
this may lead hopeless people there to sympathise with the IS and 
regard the rest of the world as having its priorities. 
We ought to pay attention to Syria for the sake of its people — those refugees who risk drowning and commit to living forever displaced from their homes, those living in shelters and camps trying to avoid the fighting, and those staying behind to defend the homes they have lived 
in all their lives. We can care about sites and monuments too — not because 
they are important for “us”, but because they are part of communities 
where people have been working, living and dying for thousands of years. 
'Saving culture' does mean preserving objects. But it also must mean safeguarding the people and communities that live with it and carry it into the future. ” 
- Alexander A. Bauer

“In Palmyra the world saw what the smashing of the idols looks like. It is not an edifying sight.” “If the ruined ruins of Palmyra could speak, they would marvel at our shock. After all, they have 
been sacked before. In their mute and shattered eloquence, they spoke for centuries not 
only about the cultures that built them but also about the cultures that destroyed 
them—about the fragility of civilization itself, even when it is incarnated in
 stone. No designation of sanctity, by God or by UNESCO, suffices to protect the past. The past
 is helpless. Instead these ruins, all ruins, have had the effect of lifting the past out of 
history and into time. They carry the spectator away from facts
 and toward reveries.”
- Leon Wieseltier,  Contributing editor at The Atlantic and author of Kaddish. 

“The war ruthlessly strikes throughout Syria and Iraq. Thus, the old city of Aleppo, an endangered World Heritage Site, has become a front line where fighters deploy all possible means
of destruction, from Molotov cocktails to TNT barrels, and including mortars,
rockets, tanks, so called 'hell cannons' and tunnels packed with explosives or
simple small arms.”
“The looting of archaeological sites and the illicit traffic of their treasured objects, such as Apamea, Doura Europos and Mari, finance the continuation of the savagery of this war and irretrievably
 erase the pages of our history that scholars could still have written.”
—ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites

“There will not be a ‘before’ in history. So there will not be an ‘after’. They are saying: ‘There is only us’. The people of Palmyra can compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ now, but in 
10 years’ time they won’t be able to compare. 
Because then no one will be left to remember.  
They will have no memory.”
- Joanne Farchakh, Archeologist 

“I don’t think we need to know the dollar value or the ranking of this income stream to know that we are all losing our cultural heritage and knowledge of our history through the looting,” 

- Patty Gerstenblith, Distinguished Research Professor of Law


Heritage is what answers the big question 'where do we come from? Without connection to the past there is no future to aspire to. 
 - Ivo van Sandick, Art Conservator


“Our past defines us.  From its bearings we can judge our path into the unknown future. To remove it denies us the foundation on which so many cultures are built, and offers us a future stripped of the achievements of generations. Without it, we risk losing any meaningful understanding of the true diversity of a land—Syria—that stood at the crossroads of a multiplicity of cultures, of the achievements that have inspired countless other cultures across the world, and of those who found ways to coexist in peace and to offer each other mutual support, despite the divides between them. Attacking Syria’s culture destroys both their history and ours, and the evidence of that great achievement of finding a path to peace whilst retaining the vibrant diversity that has made Syria so special. The systematic erasure of Syria’s proud and diverse archaeological, cultural, and historical heritage—first as a casualty in the civil war, and now through deliberate acts of mindless and criminal destruction—is a stain on humanity. On top of the untold thousands of deaths caused by the war, the damage done to Syria’s survivors by eradicating their past will make it all but impossible for the country, and for the Syrian people, to recover.
            - Staff, Heritage for Peace

“This is the thing about cultural heritage -- once it's gone, it's gone. We cannot actually recreate it,” “It won't grow back in a hundred years, so there will be no other
Bel Temple ever to look at again.”
- Clemens Reichel, Professor of archeology and Associate Curator, Royal Ontario Museum

“The things that ISIS are destroying aren’t just religious monuments, they are the first major monuments of the entire Arab people,” “It’s colossally sad.
- John Grout, Ph.D. student, London’s Royal Holloway University

“The temple of Bel in Palmyra, 
dedicated when Tiberius was emperor and Jesus was alive. 
For 1983 years it stood largely intact. Now it's gone.
- Tom Holland, Author and Historian - London

The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, 
its identity and history.
- Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

“Quasi peggio che durante il nazismo: Hitler aveva ammassato a Praga infiniti oggetti con cui costituire il "museo della razza estinta". Qui, invece, si estinguono i musei e i monumenti. Per carità: sempre meglio che gli uomini, ma ....

“Almost worse than under the Nazis. In Prague, Hitler amassed an infinite number of objects for a museum which allegedly was to be called 'the Museum of an Extinct Race.'
Here in this case however, they extinguish the museums and monuments. To be clear, its always better (to save) men, but still….
--Fabio Isman, Journalist 

“I am too deeply sad and dissapointed in humanity, giving where I am coming from, to actually be able to verbalize it. I thought the crimes of World War II taught us something.
- Magdalena Kropiwnicka, Activist and Consultant

“Even earthquakes would have been less horrible,” he said. “The temple was the most iconic and one of the most beautiful in Syria, and we have lost it.” 
“We have lost all hope. We have lost all hope that the international community will resist and we lost hope of any international movement to save the city,”
- Maumoon Abdul-Karim, the Director-General of Syria’s Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) 

“The cultural cleansing ISIS has inflicted on historic sites like Nimrud, and Palmyra are graphically visible wounds, but the violence caused by the destruction at these sites is more insidious.  Its not just the loss of a singular temple or palace or its artwork.  By not protecting these sites we passively watch the destruction of a culture’s memory.  When we stand by and allow the roots of shared identity to be destroyed by iconoclasts like ISIS we eliminate the opportunity for future generations to share in and learn from their past. This is by far the greater tragedy.
--Lynda Albertson, ARCA