By Wayne Sayles – Ancient Coin Collecting Blog

For the past five years I have read a nauseating stream of blog posts, news articles, discussion list comments and convention presentation reports that condemn the “illicit” trade in antiquities. The fact that anyone might condemn illicit activity is not in itself nauseating, but the ringing of the same bell 24/7 until the brain fogs over in biological rejection is not only nauseating but obnoxious. It reminds me of the parent in a grocery story who repeatedly harps (in the most irritating shrill cacaphony) “Johnny, don’t touch that!” over and over and over until you wish they would take little Johnny and paddle his behind (even though that is certainly not PC these days.) Really, it’s not little Johnny that needs paddling, it is the parent for not approaching the problem with a reasonable and effective solution.

When do the harpies of cultural property nationalism ever talk about the “licit” antiquities trade? From the ratio of ink spilled, one would presume that there is not even a legitimate trade in existence. Never mind that there are laws in Britain and the United States that protect private collectors and the legitimate trade in antiquities. Never mind that countries like Greece, Italy and Israel (among others) have state licensed and regulated antiquities dealers. Never mind that EC rules prohibit restrictions on the legitimate exchange of antiquities between private citizens and businesses within the European Union. Is there a legitimate trade? Of course there is, only an idiot would suggest that there isn’t. But is there any attempt among cultural property nationalists to work with the legitimate trade and private collectors to reduce incidents of archaeological looting? Very little if any, and none that I am personally aware of. In fact, as Executive Director of the ACCG, it has been my observation that the door is not and has not been open to any such collaboration for well more than a decade—and, in fact, the ACCG has tried.

The obsession among cultural property nationalists (especially those archaeologists who blog about the subject) has been to label everything without a documented provenance as illicit. Because much of the trade in antiquities does not require documented provenance, and because provenance is not especially valued by collectors of minor objects, it often does not exist. Consequently, the entire trade is painted with a broad brush as illicit. Excuse me, but that’s an asinine position and one that is a non-starter for any serious discussion. No legal system, short of autocratic government, recognizes a premise where something is illegal unto proven legal. In fact, attempts to create this sort of legal environment have led to several major upheavals in global society. A common coin or a clay pot, that is literally one of millions of surviving specimens, is treated by hardline nationalists in the same light as the Rosetta Stone. They can rave on about context and priceless information, but really, one doesn’t have to think very hard to see through that. (more…)

The twitter around the cultural property nationalist blogs at the moment is that a rare tribal octadrachm of the Bisalti has been seized from an auction firm in Switzerland. One of these bloggers even uses the episode to disparage, by linkage and innuendo, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) and its allies in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation now in progress against the U.S. State Department. This is not the first such episode by any means. I have seen a lot of misguided enmity in my varied careers, but never in my memory have I seen such absolute drivel as I have over the FOIA suit. It really deserves a prize.

First of all, the FOIA lawsuit filed against the State Department by the ACCG, with the collaboration of the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN) and the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), has absolutely NOTHING to do with the coin seizure. Mentioning them in the same breath is nothing less than ignorant—unless of course it is thought in some malevolent way that it might damage the ACCG. If that is the case, then we have a different issue, don’t we? Perhaps one would call that a volley in the cultural property war. Well, if so, the cannoneers haven’t quite got the range and bearing down.

The FOIA suit makes a complaint in U.S. Federal Court that an agency of the U.S. government failed to comply with the U.S. law governing release of information to the general public. This is a suit that is widely supported by academics and civil rights advocates, even some who advocate cultural property import controls, because every thinking person in America recognizes the importance of transparency in government. Even President Obama has made a very big issue of government transparency. That he has not been able to simply order the State Department to follow the law is telling in itself. Oh! Excuse me, he DID order them to, they just chose not to comply.
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By Wayne Sayles – Ancient Coin Collecting

In browsing the web site of Saving Antiquities For Everyone (SAFE), an advocacy group for archaeologists and Nationalists, I recently found something surprising that caught my attention. On the organization’s page appealing for donations, is a sidebar about Ai Khanoum. This mysterious ancient city in Afghanistan was discovered in the 1960s and excavated by French archaeologist Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978.

During the ensuing Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the site was heavily pillaged and was also damaged by military action and occupation. During the 1990s, according to the eminent historian Osmund Bopearachchi, the site was further devastated by “systematically planned illicit digs.” Bopearachchi published the sad tale of destruction in Afghanistan in his article “Vandalized Afghanistan” which first appeared in March of 2000 in the Indian periodical Frontline, and was reprinted in 2002 in Nomismatika Kronika the journal of the Hellenic Numismatic Society (comprised of private collectors, dealers and professional scholars). Much of the history of Ai Khanoum was lost during these two disastrous decades. SAFE quotes Bopearchchi’s comment about systematically planned illicit digs and illustrates the tiny infomercial with a rare tetradrachm struck by Diodotus during the reign of Antiochos II.

But, did they tell the whole story? Well, not really. They neglected to point out that Dr. Bopearchchi lays the blame for this devastation squarely where it belongs, on the political and religious zealotry that turned all of Afghanistan (not just ancient sites) into a waste land. Ironically, SAFE’s sidebar illustration tells more of the story. The tetradrachm by Diodotus is known and preserved (and yes recorded) today because it is in the hands of a private collector. Bopearchchi describes how huge hoards have found their way to the bourse of Peshawar in Pakistan, many of them apparently being melted down for the silver content, others migrating to collectors in “Japan, Britain and America”. A few local collectors, like Aman ur Rahman and Khurshid Ahmad Khan, saved some of the most important pieces from oblivion. They not only saved the coins, they collaborated with Dr. Bopearachchi on his important survey of Pre-Kushana Coins in Pakistan. Were the markets of Peshawar not mined by these collectors, even more of Ai Khanoum’s and Afghanistan’s history would have been consumed in the melting pots.
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