[MSN] Looting history - Archaeology in the Balkans

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Looting history - Archaeology in the Balkans 

25 novembre 2006
The Economist

(c) The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2006. All rights reserved 

Protecting archaeological sites in south-eastern Europe 

A Balkan battle is on to save the past 

THE crime scene is a hole in the ground at Marvinci, in a remote corner of
south-western Macedonia. Last month looters dug up a bronze figurine of
Apollo and sold it for euro20,000 ($26,000) to a Greek dealer. ?I know
everything, but even the police and customs are involved, so there is
nothing I can do,? says Goran Karapetkov, a local archaeologist. ?It rips my
heart in two.? 

Since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, Macedonia's rich archaeological
sites have been plundered wholesale. A burly dealer-digger in Marvinci says
that poverty has turned looting, chiefly of jewellery, from ancient Greek
and Roman tombs into a ?fight for survival?. Aided by fake certificates of
origin, his finds go to collectors in America, Germany, Greece and Japan.
Ill-paid local archaeologists are involved too, he says. A police source in
Skopje readily lists the names of some ardent but untouchable collectors,
including that of a former senior ambassador. 

Ilce Bojcevski, an official trying to stop the looting, hopes that a new law
will help. Another good sign was a recent conference in Macedonia that
brought officials from ex-Yugoslav countries and Albania together with
experts from UNESCO and INTERPOL. A haul of looted ancient Macedonian
treasures was recently seized on the Slovene-Croatian border. Yet, although
political will is vital, hard cash is also needed. 

Some 300km (190 miles) from Marvinci, at the southern tip of Albania, lies
Butrint (Bouthroton in ancient times), which has a theatre and the remains
of an early Christian basilica. It used to be a wretched place, submerged by
undergrowth and with a looted, derelict museum. Now local schoolchildren,
Austrian holidaymakers, Dutch bikers and day-trippers from Corfu all mingle
happily in the cleaned-up site. Butrint's revival owes much to two British
lords, Jacob Rothschild and John Sainsbury. 

Their foundation has raised millions of dollars, mainly from America, to
restore the site and pay for new digging. Some locals find its style a bit
colonial. But topping up the salaries of Albanian archaeologists means they
are paid three times as much as their Macedonian counterparts?and so are
keener to protect their country's heritage. 

Many looted items have been returned, including a sculpture found in the
possession of Robert Hecht, a dealer now on trial in Rome for allegedly
dealing in stolen antiquities. Butrint's good fortune is that Lord
Rothschild's holiday home is on Corfu. Sadly, landlocked Macedonia is less
likely to attract such a benevolent patron.