[MSN] Normal anthropologist Linda Giles, who played a key role in helping a Kenyan family get its religious artifact back, says trafficking in stolen such artifacts continues to be a global problem.

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Anthropologist: Artifact trafficking still a problem
 
 
By Michele Steinbacher 
msteinbacher at pantagraph.com

SPRINGFIELD - Normal anthropologist Linda Giles, who played a key role in
helping a Kenyan family get its religious artifact back, says trafficking in
stolen such artifacts continues to be a global problem.

In the last decade, she and University of Kentucky anthropologist Monica
Udvardy have found more than 350 vigango in about 20 U.S. institutions,
including the Illinois State Museum, Hampton University in Virginia, Indiana
University and San Diego University.

The anthropologists, along with Kenyan government leaders, contend the
memorial wood carvings are stolen, noting the custom among the Mijikenda
people is to be plant the posts and never move them. Yet reports of their
theft are common.

"Most of these have been stolen," Udvardy said on Wednesday at an Illinois
State Museum ceremony to repatriate one of the statues to Kenyan officials.

The researchers continue to revisit the Swahili Coast region and track the
problem, each time finding the thefts continue, she said. Udvardy and Giles
now are working on a film documentary to raise awareness about the problems
with westerners unwittingly buying the stolen goods.

Interpol, the international police agency, estimates the world's illicit art
trade is a $4.5 billion industry, fourth only to arms, drugs and endangered
animal products, said Udvardy.

Vigango usually go for $4,000 to $5,000 a piece on the market, she said.

They also are working with Kenyan museum professionals to find ways to
document the posts so they can be traced if stolen.

"We're trying to take photos of ones that haven't been stolen yet, but
they're aren't many out there," said Giles.

The task of quelling westerners' desire for "authentic" African artifacts
may seem daunting, Udvardy said. But, she doesn't see it as an impossible
task.

She compares the anthropologists' mission of preserving African cultural
heritage to that of biologists' efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to show the
public the exotic fur trade was endangering species.

Udvardy said she thinks that if people learn the difference between
artifacts created for tourist purchase and authentic cultural pieces, the
artifacts can be saved.

"I think we can do it," she said.

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