Aidonia Treasure (1993): Appears to Be from a Mycenaean Grave Context

• Recovered Antiquities

 Aidonia Treasure (1993): appears to be from a Mycenaean grave context

• Came to light in an exhibition at a gallery of Michael Ward
• Greek archaeologists notified of the collection identified it as coming from a selection of 15 tombs looted heavily during the 1970’s in the Aidonia cemetery in Myceneae
• Based purely on stylistic evidence and comparative traits, the collection was linked to the site
• Case ended with Ward’s settlement prior to the trial, and revealing how he came to own the pieces

• “Measures taken to stop looting and to protect sites”

 Law 2646 (1899): “On Antiquities”

• Panayotis Kavvadias: General Ephor of Antiquities at the time
• Stiffer penalties for antiquities theft than previous law passed in 1834
• Current law, (5351-passed 1932): provides for punitive measures for clandestine excavators (different from looters?)

 Law 654 (1977): allows for the temporary export of antiquities: “loans”

• Any private citizen who wishes to export an antiquity across the border must have documents certifying its purchase from a licensed antique dealer

 Law 1103 (1980): Ratifies UNESCO convention of 1970

 1995 UNIDROIT: Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects: signed, but not ratified: harsher wording, stricter policies on import/export rules

 Departments concerned with Illicit Antiquities

• Historical Artifact Unit of the Hellenic Constabulary
• Greek Interpol
• Hellenic Ministry of Culture
• Archaeological Service (Through the Dept. of Museums)
• Ephorates (Supervisor, Overseer) of Antiquities (regional)
• Ephorate of Antique Shops and Private Collections
• An ephor (Classical Greek Ἔφορος) (from the Greek ἐπί, epi, on or over, and ὁράω, horaō, to see, i.e. one who oversees, a supervisor) was an official of ancient Sparta. There were five ephors elected annually, who swore each month to uphold the rule of the two kings, while the kings swore to uphold the law.

- CYCLADIC OBJECTS

• Late 18th, early 19th century: period of great proliferation of public museums
• Ephorate of Antiquities for the Cyclades founded in 1886
• Despite the presence of officials, it became harder and harder to control the tourist population that began to boom
• Early aesthetic was for the Hellenic pieces, classical works and statues
• Cycladic pieces were often described as barbaric, primitive, monstrosities, etc
• Even so, pieces had found their way to museums and collections in the 18th and 19th centuries

 Pasch van Krienen: Plakotos on Ios

 George Finlay: Ios (1837) purchased objects in Chora, capital of the island

 Christos Tsountas(1898): opened graves in Chalandriani on Syros, goods became founding collection of the Berlin Museum

 Bent (1898): looted graves on Antiparos: became basis of Early Cycladic collection in the British Museum

 -Notes a “spirit of competition among museums” anxious to possess Cycladic figurines following the shift in taste

 --collection is “not complete” if they lack Cycladic pieces: Museums forced to MAKE UP NAMES for unnamed pieces (e.g. “Cycladic Statue of a Reclining Woman”)

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 -1960’s saw illicit looting of cemeteries and other place son the islands where figures and other fine artifacts may be found.

 -Authors see Cycladic archaeology suffering in a way similar to the Etruscan tombs, Mali (West African terracottas)

 Cycladic archaeology/collecting as only recently moved into the mainstream

 “We are fond of [Cycladic Figures] ourselves, and part of that fondness is in our finding them strange and alien; but we do think that our response, founded in our individual selves and for the larger part in the aesthetics of our present society, has little to do with the meaning of Cycladic figures in their own age.”

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 THE MATERIAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MARKET DISCOVERY OF CYLADIC FIGURES

 -Cycladic pieces have “no place in the common canon of ancient treasures” because no evidence of their influence on later sculpture has been proposed

 -Italian travelers refer to idoli and idoletti in 1771: Marangou(?) 136

 -James Theodore Bent: pieces he excavated in the Cyclades in 1883-4 were eventually acquired by the British Museum

 -British university museums (Cambridge-Fitzwilliam Museum/Oxford- Ashmolean) seem to have derived their Cycladic collections in part through the British School at Athens

 Fitzwilliam: donated by R.C. Bosanquet in 1901 and its last collection in 1934

• Staatli

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• Modern Art: Death of the Cyclades

 As perceptions changed due to the influence of modern art, painters who emphasized the abstract, primitive works began to change the aesthetic of collectors

• Artists Influenced by Cycladic Art

 *Picasso –powerful but primitive art?

 *Jacob Epstein (found in the Louvre 1902-1905)

 *Constantin Brancusi (evocative of)

 *Henry Moore (acknowledged similarities between his work and CF of the British Museum in 1920)

 *Barbara Hepworth (echoes through Moore’s work)

 *Alberto Giacometti (acknowledges similarities)

 *Jean (arp?)

- CYCLADIC THIEVES

• Angelos Batsalis: (1885-1953) on Ios

 Shoemaker by day

 Involved in the “underworld”: cultivated opium poppies, selling hashish, antiquities theft began when he was inducted into ring of thieves in Athens, Monastiraki district

 Upon his return to Ios, he began looking for antiquities to sell: Early Cycladic, Classical, Byzantine icons

• Specialized in Early Cycladic

 Hired by landowners as laborers, explored “coves and banks of streams” where many graves were laid out

 Accomplished poet and sculptor, may be the author of forgeries sold for high prices: used the soil from the land surrounding his house to give the forgeries a false patina to fool authenticators

 Noted by David Gill as being part of the reason that many pre-WWI Cycladic objects must be held to a higher scrutiny

- Results of Cycladic Thefts

• Objects in museums may be forgeries: uses of local marbles, false patinas, etc may be used by local forgers to fake antiquities, throwing any chance at establishing a timeline or definable style for Cycladic objects into confusion
• Further excavations are heavily relied upon to provide reliable evidence and context for looted objects or those of dubious provenance, but arguably no museum objects without reliable provenience or documentation can be used in anything but the broadest of contexts for study
• Possible solutions include the creation of local museums to house objects found on the islands, future large, traveling exhibitions to promote interest in the scholarly study of antiquities
• Discussion of the interest in and harm of Cycladic sites with locals, promotion of awareness