The Antiquities Coalition Hosts Top Cambodian Officials at Roundtable on Cultural Racketeering

GLOBAL SOLUTIONS TO A GLOBAL PROBLEM EMPHASIZED

Cambodian officials continuing their efforts to repatriate a group of statues looted during the country's civil war joined the Antiquities Coalition on May 8 for a discussion of cultural racketeering in New York. Led by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, Secretary of State Chan Tani, and Director General of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Hab Touch, the delegation engaged a group of international experts in a wide ranging discussion about the problem of looting and the illegal trafficking in antiquities and told about efforts to return the 10^th century sculptural group from the Koh Ker dynasty temple site at Prasat Chen. 

The Antiquities Coalition's Cultural Racketeering Roundt-

able in New York on May 8, 2014.  Photo Credit: The 

Antiquities Coalition

Antiquities Coalition team members Deborah Lehr, Peter Herdrich, Katie Paul, and Tess Davis, an archaeologist and advocate of Cambodian cultural heritage organized the roundtable. Experts with broad international experience from diverse backgrounds in archaeology, museums, government, and business contributed to a conversation about global solutions to a global problem. The discussants included:

• Journalist Ralph Blumenthal of the New York Times, who commented on his coverage of the
  story of the repatriation efforts and how the media has contributed to a broader public understanding of the issues. He and his colleague Tom Mashburg have been in front of the story from its inception, including the recent developments that Christie's, Sotheby's, and the Norton Simon Museum in California are returning sandstone statues from the Prasat Chen temple to Cambodia.

• Larry Coben, the founder of the Sustainable Preservation Initiative, who gave a comparative perspective with a review of his work in Peru. SPI seeks to preserve the world’s cultural heritage by providing sustainable economic opportunities to poor communities where endangered archaeological sites are located. SPI believes the best way to preserve cultural heritage is by creating or supporting locally owned business whose success is tied to that preservation, a paradigm that could have great success in Cambodia.

•  Rory Hunter, the owner of the Song Saa resort in Cambodia, who talked about the importance of an economic component in heritage preservation in providing opportunities for people around sites as well as in protecting them.

•  The Ambassador of Cyprus, Mr. Vasilios Philippou, who commented on his country's experience in combatting looting and how challenging it is for countries facing economic difficulties to fight this global issue alone.

• Cambodian Secretary of State Chan Tani, who agreed with Ambassador Philipou and talked about how governments, NGOs, and committed people around the world can join in the fight to help countries in crisis fight against cultural racketeering.

• Lisa Ackerman of the World Monuments Fund, who endorsed the importance of inventories and accession records to provide baseline data on the material every country has discovered. *

Also providing insight were Sameh Iskander, the President of the American Research Center in Egypt, Joyce Clark from Heritage Watch International in Cambodia, Special Agent Brenton Easter of Homeland Security Investigations, and Robert Murowchick the Director of the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History at Boston University. All commented on aspects of the illegal trade in antiquities. 

Left to Right: Antiquities Coalition Chairman, Deborah Lehr;

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An; Antiquities Coa-

lition Counselor, Tess Davis; and Antiquities Coalition Vice

Chairman, Peter Herdrich as Deputy Prime Minister Sok An 

addresses looting and cultural racketeering at the May 8th 

Roundtable in New York. Photo Credit: The Antiquities 

Coalition

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An summarized his perspective on cultural racketeering and the search for global solutions. He urged all to consider the three ideas he keeps in mind in his efforts to provide assistance – respect for local culture, for nature, and for communities. He endorsed the primacy of international and Cambodian law in solving disagreements and commented that since cultural racketeering is a multifaceted, international problem, Cambodia was pleased to have many allies in the international community, including all those present.

The roundtable discussion was held at the Metropolitan Club in New York. It is the second organized by the Antiquities Coalition, following a March Cultural Racketeering Roundtable at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC marking the visit of Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim to sign a Public-Private Partnership with the Coalition to cooperate in fighting cultural racketeering in Egypt.

*The Antiquities Coalition is currently working with The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on extending inventory and accession record programs to museums and storage sites across the country.

Egyptian Government Formally Requests Emergency Import Restrictions from U.S. State Department

The Egyptian government has formally requested that the State Department impose emergency restrictions on the import of Egyptian antiquities into the United States without the appropriate documentation.  Since the January 2011 Revolution, massive looting has occurred at every major Egyptian archaeological site, in addition to systematic and organized targeting of museums, government storage units, religious institutions as well as significant illicit excavations.  Research by the Antiquities Coalition shows that looting at sites has increased between 500 and 1000% since the January 2011 Revolution. 

Antiquity dealers and collectors from Michigan, New York,
Virginia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) conspired to
smuggle illicit cultural property - Egyptian Middle Eastern
and Asian antiquities - into the United States and conspired
to “launder money in furtherance of smuggling.”
Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The United States is one of the top markets for the sale of Egyptian antiquities.  We urge the Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee (CPAC) to make a positive recommendation to the State Department to halt the import of illicit Egyptian antiquities. 

A positive recommendation will be important in the fight against cultural racketeering – the systematic and organized looting of archaeological sites by criminal networks.  Cultural racketeering is a global issue faced by many countries, including Syria, Libya, Peru, Guatemala and more. 

The CPAC will begin its review of the cultural property request from the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt at a hearing on June 2-4.  The Public portion of the hearing will occur on June 2. 

Egypt is the land that gave us the pyramids, Cleopatra, and the Valley of the Kings. Its unrivaled culture has entranced the world, offering us uncountable hours of fascination and enjoyment. Now, it’s time to honor Egypt’s invaluable gifts to the world and rally together to defend some of humanity’s greatest creations.

Supporters can submit written comments for the CPAC to consider as part of their determination at the eRulemaking Portal (http://www.regulations.gov), enter the Docket No. DOS-2014-0008, and follow the prompts to submit a comment.  All written comments must be received no later than May 14, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. (EDT).