Focus in the trial of Marion True in Rome shifted to Robert Hecht, the antiquities dealer accused of conspiring to traffic in antiquities with Ms. True. Objects dealt with by Mr. Hecht ended up in the collections of museum such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, where Ms. True was a curator, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many of the items in question have been returned to Rome and are displayed in an exhibition, “Nostoi: Capolavori Ritrovati,” in the Palazzo del Quirinale. Reported in the New York Times on 23 January.
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On 21 January, BBC reported that the Egyptian Council of Antiquities has contacted the Ostergotlands County Museum in Sweden about the return of about 200 objects collected by the Swede Otto Smith in the 1920s from locations such as Saqqara and Luxor. The Egyptian chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, has stated that the items were illegally removed from their locations in Egypt, that they were neglected and even damaged by the museum, and that Otto Smith’s family now considers the museum to have been in breach of contract.
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KI Media has reported that Toul Trapeang Ang (Royal Pond Hill) is a thousand year old ancient man-made hill located in Romeas Haek district in Svay Rieng province was recently looted by local police and military police.
It was reported that at 7 PM on the 16th of January, 2009, four officials from Romeas Haek district, including the chief of Sambath Meanchey district and local police chief with four military police officers, went to Toul Trapeang Ang to search for valuables but they were prevented by the villagers from doing so.
On Saturday 17th January, 2009 the same officials went to see the village chief and the hill’s curator by telling them that they had permission from the higher authority to dig and take the artefacts to the national museum. The villagers became suspicious when no documents could be produced and the fact that they wished to excavate at night.
Permission to dig was refused but the officials replied that the site was state property, and that they had the authority to dig the hill because they got the agreement of the commune chief, the local police chief and the local military police officers.
At around 9 PM, the group started digging the hill, with armed military police standing guard. About 100 local villagers stay watching them through the night until 1 AM. The resulting hole was 2m x 3 m and a lot of ancient pottery, bricks and urns containing ancient human remains were scattered inside and outside of the pit.
According to villagers, this hill was a burial site and is more than a thousand years old. The site is believed to have contained sacred objects and ancient valuables such as idols, urns containing remains of ancient heroes etc.
The digging around the site has been postponed for the time being due to objection from the villagers.
Mr. Prum Phary, deputy director of the Provincial Heritage Office, said that, due to complaints from the villagers, he was asked by the director of Provincial Cultural and Fine Arts Centre to go to the area to see for himself. He has intervened and has asked that the digging be stopped immediately. Furthermore, he has instructed the villagers to protect this hill and must report to the authority immediately should any group try to dig this hill again. At this time, the Provincial Cultural and Fine Arts Centre is asking the authority to punish those culprits who were involved in the digging of this ancient hill.
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A petition is being ciruclated to appeal to the government and Royal Palace that the historic Phnom Penh landmark, the Renakse Hotel be saved from demolition.
The petition reads:
We are a number of Cambodian and International institutions and individuals involved in the preservation of Cambodia’s culture and cultural heritage who felt it was necessary to alert Your Majesty and Your Excellencies on the threatened heritage of a number of historical landmarks in the city of Phnom Penh. One of them, the Renakse Hotel, located in front of the Royal Palace, is both a building of considerable architectural value as well as an historical milestone. From its foundation in the early part of the twentieth century, the building was part of the Royal Court of Justice instituted during the French Protectorate. It was there that the world famous writer/adventurer André Malraux was first tried for his attempt at looting the temple of Banteay Srei in the Angkor region. Later, in 1979, the first post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian government settled in its walls. For many people engaged in the reconstruction of a post-conflict, modern and democratic Cambodia (including members of the Cambodian People Party which owns the building), the Renakse was their meeting-ground, and an important place of activities. The old walls of this venerable building are therefore charged with the history of modern Cambodia. Moreover, and if the old front building is well preserved, the Renakse represents an attractive tourist site that could both generate jobs and incomes for many, while continuing to serve its role as a one of the architectural pillars of the city of Phnom Penh.
For these reasons, we call on Your Majesty, Your Excellency Samdech Prime Minister and on Your Excellencies Members of the Royal Cambodian Government, to do all what is in Their Capacities to save this historical landmark from destruction, total or partial. We also take this opportunity to call upon Your Wisdom to continue to raise awareness among the Cambodian people on the priceless value of the country’s architectural built heritage, which cannot be limited to the temples of the Angkor times.
To sign the petition please send an email to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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In April, 2008, the Milken Institute held a round-table discussion on the commercialization of antiquities and the impact that would have on the destruction of cultural heritage.
The following is taken from the Milken Institute's web site (www.milkeninstitute.org/events/gcprogram.taf) Glenn Yago opened the session, describing it as part of an ongoing discussion that began at the Milken Institute earlier in the year. "One of the key aspects to human capital is culture and history," he said, "and it's at risk." Preserving the past is a vital part of a nation's cultural heritage, but in many parts of the world, antiquities have become commodities in an illegal market that now totals $6 billion. Most of the money goes to the middlemen, he said, who may get up to a hundred times what the indigenous farmer received, who dug it out of the earth. The black market in antiquities is "stripping the world of its cultural heritage," said Yago.
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