Jordan Times
Friday, August 13, 2004
Iraqi antiquities theft a
customs headache
By Sarah McGregor-Wood
AMMAN — Customs officials have confirmed they seized two boxes of suspected
Iraqi relics at Al Karama border crossing last week, following a routine search
on a private car.
The boxes, hidden in the boot of the vehicle, contained 18 statues, which the
driver claimed were to be mailed to an exhibition in France.
The discovery of the statues, which have yet to be authenticated by the
Department of Antiquities (DoA) in Amman, highlights the difficulties faced by
authorities on both sides of the border in protecting Iraq's cultural heritage
from looters.
In a bid to clamp down on the illegal trade, UNESCO is holding a training
programme on site protection and border control next month which will involve
Jordanian officials and 75 Iraqi participants.
“The three-week programme starts at the end of September,” said Philippe
Delanghe, UNESCO's programme specialist for Iraq. “We will have specialists from
Italy's Carabinieri as well as representatives from the Antiquities and Customs
Department in Jordan. We would also like to see the police and intelligence
services get involved and work with us on this.”
Over 1,000 stolen items have already been recovered in Jordan, either at the
border or on the open market. Recovered pieces are currently being held at the
DoA storage site in Amman, awaiting a more suitable time to be repatriated. The
department has set up a computerised inventory of the pieces to enable
information sharing with the Iraqi Museum and UNESCO. According to a DoA
representative, there have been several waves of seizures since the end of the
war, the latest coming in April this year.
All suspected antiquities seizures are verified by experts from the DoA before
the pieces are transferred into their care. “We have received a large variety of
items,” said a spokesperson. “Occasionally some are fakes, but we need to check
everything. Once the pieces are in our hands, we can make sure they are kept in
good condition, in a secure location.”
Next month's training programme is part of UNESCO's long-term strategy to ensure
Iraq's heritage sites are adequately protected. “Conditions on the ground are
very difficult right now,” explained Delanghe “What we can do is start
developing a system that will enable the Iraqi government to protect its sites.”
Artefacts were being smuggled through Jordan even before the 2003 war. “Art
theft is nothing new,” said Nayab Al Dabbagh “However, before the war, it was
more individualised, with pieces more likely to be stolen to order and sold to
prearranged buyers. Now it's more opportunistic.”
Despite the obvious scale of the problem, experts say it is impossible to put a
price tag on it. “These are objects that in themselves have no intrinsic value,”
stated Delanghe. “What can be sold for $200 on the local market could go for 10
times that if it ends up in the US.”
So far, the United States has been one of the largest markets for stolen Iraqi
antiquities with around 1,000 items seized by customs officials and police
there.
Antiquities and relics are not the only items of Iraqi cultural property being
traded illegally. According to Dabbagh, books, paintings and manuscripts are
also disappearing from the country.
“We have heard that two stolen painting by Iraqi artist Faik Hassan are on sale
in a gallery in Amman,” she said.
“One of the problems is that even if the authorities know where the items are,
they cannot pay to have them returned. This matter is currently in the hands of
the Ministry of Culture.”
The authorities here have been working closely with all parties involved in
fighting illicit trafficking, but given Jordan's position as a prime transit
country, customs officials at the department's 36 centres could be asked to
brush up on their art history.
“We have received the full support of Jordanian ministries,” said Delanghe, “The
main improvement would be providing more training on recognising objects.
Islamic art can sometimes be very difficult to categorise.”