[MSN] It's art squad v tomb raiders as Greece reclaims its pillaged past. As Athens and Rome clamp down, smugglers venture further afield.

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It's art squad v tomb raiders as Greece reclaims its pillaged past 

As Athens and Rome clamp down, smugglers venture further afield 

Helena Smith in Geneva
Friday July 21, 2006
The Guardian 

 
Life-size bronze sculpture of Apollo Sauroktonos. Photograph: CH Pete
Copeland/AP/The Plain Dealer
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1825719,00.html

  
For the connoisseur of ancient art, 6 rue Verdaine in Geneva's old town is a
jewel to behold. Set in its windows, like pearls in an oyster, are an
elegant Attic red figure krater attributed to a 5th-century BC painter, an
Etruscan pouring vessel and an array of vases.
Enter the plush showroom and the antiquities get better. Just in from the
collection of an anonymous Swiss gentleman is a rare, 4th-century AD
portrait of Helena, the mother of Constantine, the founder of Byzantium. The
bronze bust, though severe of expression, is the showpiece of Phoenix
Ancient Art - and comes with a £1.2m price tag. "Great-quality antiquities
are a great investment," says Ali Aboutaam, the gallery's Lebanese
proprietor. "They're a fraction of the price of, say, buying a Picasso."
In a world where cynicism and forgeries prevail, Mr Aboutaam insists no
piece is purchased without being checked first, through the vendor, Interpol
and various publications. "We're against dealing in illegally excavated
antiquities and we don't support that market at all."
But in the increasingly sophisticated international art market, even items
sold openly and legally with apparent provenance can cause controversy. Six
years ago Phoenix Ancient Art sold a 3,200-year old mummy mask to the St
Louis Art Museum that Egypt claims was stolen from the Cairo Museum,
although Mr Aboutaam says "there is no evidence to support" the accusations.

In 2004 a life-size bronze sculpture of Apollo Sauroktonos stood in the
showroom before it was sold for an undisclosed amount to the Cleveland
Museum of Art. Carved by Praxiteles, the master artist, the work is seen as
the finest piece of classical sculpture purchased by a north American museum
since the second world war.

"[We] acquired the Apollo ... after over a year of extensive research. An
international team of specialists thoroughly considered the acquisition from
legal, art-historical,and technical perspectives, including laboratory
testing. An emphasis was placed on research into its history," says a
spokeswoman, Donna Brock, adding that the museum remains confident about its
decision.

'We stand by its provenance'

Mr Aboutaam also says the statue was bought in good faith. "We stand by its
provenance." An account of the statue's ownership history released at the
time of the acquisition by the Cleveland, and endorsed by Phoenix Ancient
Art, says the monumental bronze was "a part of a private estate" in the
former East Germany until it was rediscovered "in pieces" in 1990. The
family who reclaimed the estate upon reunification, sold the work in 1994 to
unnamed persons before it was acquired by Phoenix Ancient Art.

But, this month, as Greece stepped up its campaign against the illegal
antiquities trade and announced it would demand the repatriation of hundreds
of looted works, the statue again became the focus of scrutiny. Mr Aboutaam
may have exercised due diligence when he bought the masterpiece but
authorities in Athens believe that before it entered his showroom it was
passed through a chain of traffickers on the underground market. "We're
investigating this statue and whether it was stolen very closely," says
Giorgos Gligoris, who heads Greece's art squad. "We believe that it was,
that it's a typical case of antiquities theft. We're in the process of
studying photographs. The Italians, we have learned, may be claiming it and
so may we. Our information from informers is that it was found in the Ionian
Sea and then passed on, through I don't know how many hands, before being
sold."