MKG Hamburg returns 12th-century marble panel to Afghanistan

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 08, 2019 / comment : 0 Afghanistan, Archaeology, Asia, Central Asia, Heritage

On the 8th of October, the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg officially returned a marble dado panel to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Mr. Abdul Jabar Ariyaee, Charge d’Affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Berlin, came to Hamburg to receive the panel from the museum. MKG is one of the first German museums to return a work of art to Afghanistan. Beyond investigating Nazi art looting and the issue of colonial collections, the museum has been increasingly turning its attention to more recent acquisitions as well.

Marble panel from the Royal Palace of Mas’ud III in Ghazni [Credit: © MKG/Joachim Hiltmann]

The restitution of the panel is the result of research carried out on its provenance and represents yet a further example of the responsibility borne by museums and the international art trade for how objects from illicit excavations are handled. The marble dado panel once belonged to a 78-part frieze dating to the twelfth century that adorned the inner courtyard of the Royal Palace of Sultan Mas’ud III in the town of Ghazni, Afghanistan. In the late 1970s, it was stolen from Ghazni’s Rawza Museum of Islamic Art.

Now, after years of research, assisted by scholars from the University of Hamburg and the Sapienza Universita di Roma, as well as close cooperation between German and Afghan authorities, the panel can finally be handed back to its rightful owners. For the time being it will be kept in the Afghan National Museum in Kabul. MKG reached out to the director, Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, to help resolve the issue of the panel. Since November 2018, the MKG is displaying the marble panel in its permanent exhibition Looted Art? Provenance Research on the Collections of the MKG: The panel is presented already half-packed in a transport box set, ready to be returned. In volume 4 of its “Looted Art?” series, the MKG summarizes the research conducted on the history of the panel’s loss and acquisition.

MKG originally purchased the marble panel in good faith at a Paris auction in 2013. The provenance was not a cause of concern at first, but upon closer study it turned out that the object had in fact been stolen from the Rawza Museum of Islamic Art in Ghazni. It was possible to trace the dado panel to excavations carried out by archeologists from Afghanistan and Italy between 1957 and 1966. The archeological finds were handed over at the time to the Rawza Museum, where they were documented as new accessions. The later destabilization of Afghanistan in 1978 and the invasion by the Soviet Army in 1979 led to the museum’s collections being transported off site for safekeeping. During this relocation, the panel now in the possession of MKG was apparently stolen or moved elsewhere, and showed up on the Paris art market in the early 1990s. Many international museums have objects from Afghanistan that come from the same excavations in Ghazni.

Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media, Hamburg: “For far too long, our eyes have been closed to the true provenance of cultural goods. On a variety of levels, we are therefore currently tackling the important task of investigating the origins of the objects in our collections and, if necessary, arranging for their restitution. One result of this crucial change of consciousness and the intensive provenance research being done at many museums is that the historic marble panel acquired by MKG can now be returned to Afghanistan. I thank MKG for taking a critical look at its own collection. With the restitution to Afghanistan, the people living there will again have access to this object, which is part of their cultural heritage.”

Prof. Tulga Beyerle, Director of MKG: “I consider the fact that a museum, in this case the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, is publicly acknowledging its mistakes to be an important step. My predecessor, Dr. Sabine Schulze, has thus set a new standard in dealing with looted art. For it is not only a matter of careful provenance research and the potential restitution of art objects that have long been in the museum’s holdings, but also a question of being willing to rectify errors made in recent acquisitions as well.”

Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, Director of the Afghan National Museum in Kabul: “Thousands of movable artifacts have been stolen from both Ghazni and the National Museum of Afghanistan, in particular the white marble panels from the palace of Mas’ud III. We are looking forward to having the dado panel from Hamburg back in our collection soon, and I would like to express my gratitude to MKG for supporting its return. At the same time, I appeal to other museums and private collections to help us retrieve other art objects stolen from Afghanistan.”

MKG has been working on the restitution of the panel since 2014, assisted by Germany’s cultural property authority (Kulturgutschutz Deutschland) and the German Foreign Office. In the summer of 2018, an initial meeting took place between the museum, representatives from the Afghan Embassy in Berlin, and the German authorities. MKG is now the first German museum to return an object to Afghanistan. Back in 2006, the Musee Guimet in Paris already restored pieces to the Afghan National Museum. And in July 2019, the British Museum announced that it would give back Buddha sculptures that were presumably introduced into the art trade by the Taliban and confiscated at a London airport in 2002.

Source: Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg [October 08, 2019]

Art ring charged with smuggling $143 million in antiquities

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 11, 2019 / comment : 0 Afghanistan, Archaeology, Asia, Cambodia, Heritage, India, Pakistan

An art dealer who authorities called one of the most prolific smugglers in the world and seven others were charged with trafficking more than $140 million in stolen antiquities, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Three of the items seized by the Department of Homeland Security during the course of the investigation into Subhash Kapoor and his co-defendants [Credit: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office]

Authorities described the case as one of the largest of its kind, saying the conspiracy began more than three decades ago and involved more than 2,600 recovered artifacts, including statues and ancient masterworks.

A criminal complaint filed in Manhattan state court said the smuggling was orchestrated by Subhash Kapoor, a New York art gallery owner who was arrested in Germany in 2011 and later extradited to India, where he faces similar charges. An email seeking comment was sent to Kapoor’s defense attorney.

The prosecution involves artifacts stolen from Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Pakistan and other countries that were sold for profit to dealers and collectors around the world. Some of the items appeared in world-renowned museums without officials realizing they were ill-gotten gains.

“These are, in many instances, priceless works that represent the culture and history of the countries from which they were stolen,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. told The Associated Press in an interview. “They are of enormous value.”

In all, authorities said, the network trafficked more than $143 million worth of antiquities. The international investigation was called “Operation Hidden Idol.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described Kapoor as “one of the most prolific art smugglers in the world.” He faces 86 counts in the criminal complaint, including grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

A sandstone stele of Rishabhanata from the 10th century, believed looted, seized in a raid of Christie’s as part of an international investigation into former dealer Subhash Kapoor [Credit: Department of Homeland Security]

The lead prosecutor, Matthew Bogdanos, told the AP that none of the defendants is believed to be in the United States. He said the authorities asked Interpol to issue international warrants for their arrest.

Kapoor, 70, owned the Art of the Past gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which authorities raided in early 2012.

The criminal complaint says Kapoor went to extraordinary lengths to acquire the artifacts, many of them statues of Hindu deities, and then falsified their provenance with forged documents.

It says Kapoor traveled the world seeking out antiquities that had been looted from temples, homes and archaeological sites.

Some of the artifacts were recovered from Kapoor’s storage units in New York.

Prosecutors said Kapoor had the items cleansed and repaired to remove any damage from illegal excavation, and then illegally exported them to the United States from their countries of origin.

“Kapoor would also loan stolen antiquities to major museums and institutions,” the complaint says, “creating yet another false veneer of legitimacy by its mere presence in otherwise reputable museums and institutions.”

The other defendants in the case include suppliers and restorers accused of conspiring with Kapoor.

Author: Jim Mustian | AP News [July 11, 2019]

Ancient Afghan citadel collapses, cultural heritage sites at risk

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on June 15, 2019 / comment : 0 Afghanistan, Archaeology, Asia, Central Asia, Heritage

An ancient tower dating back 2,000 years in the historic Afghan city of Ghazni collapsed this week, local officials said, raising concerns about the vulnerability of the country’s cultural heritage and the government’s ability to protect them.

Ancient towers still stand in the old city of Ghazni [Credit: Ahmad Masood/Reuters]

The old citadel known as Ghaznain Fort originally had 36 towers, but 14 of the towers had collapsed in recent years due to decades of war, heavy rain and neglect.

The fort is one of dozens of unique historic sites in Afghanistan - ranging from the pre-Islamic Buddhist center in the Bamyan valley to the 12th century minaret of Jam in a remote area of Ghor province - in urgent need of protection.

Officials in Ghazni, which nearly fell to the Taliban last year in some of the heaviest fighting seen in the war, said the tower collapsed on Tuesday following heavy rain. A short video posted on social media shows it crumbling but local residents say negligence also contributed to its collapse.

“The government paid no attention to the sites and didn’t build canals to divert flood water,” said Ghulam Sakhi, who lives near the citadel.

“We have warned the government about the dire condition of the citadel but no one visited,” Sakhi said.


Mahbubullah Rahmani, acting director of culture and information in Ghazni, said heavy rain and recent fighting had contributed to the tower’s collapse but said the government was working on a plan to protect the site from complete destruction.

He said a German archaeologist had worked at the site as recently as 2013.

Ghazni, a strategically vital center on the main highway between Kabul and southern Afghanistan and two hour drive from the capital, is home to a range of cultural and archeological artifacts, some of which date back to pre-Islamic period.

The province and its cultural heritage was officially declared as Asian Capital of Islamic Culture in 2013 by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a Morocco-based body created in 1981, supported by UNESCO.

The collapse of the tower in Ghazni follows concern over the condition of the 900-year-old Minaret of Jam, in Ghor, which has been on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Properties in Danger since 2002.

The Taliban during their austere regime from 1996-2001, before they were toppled by the U.S. and coalition force in late 2001, blew up two giant Buddha statues in central Bamiyan province, calling them idols.

Author: Mustafa Andalib | Source: Reuters [June 15, 2019]