[MSN] India, Others, Step Up Antiquities Scrutiny

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    India, Others, Step Up Antiquities Scrutiny

BY BRADLEY HOPE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 20, 2007

The Republic of India has stepped up its scrutiny of New York's 
international antiquities trade, a senior consulate official said during 
an interview this week.

Over the past three years, the consulate has forged a closer 
relationship with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and several 
investigations into smuggled antiquities are under way in the city, the 
deputy consul general of the consulate, A.R. Ghanashyam, said.

"There was a time when people in villages would not even contemplate 
that things like this, objects in temples, could sell in a New York 
market," Mr. Ghanashyam said. "Over the last years, with increased 
tourist traffic and globalization, pieces are disappearing."

A senior special agent at ICE, James McAndrew, said India is part of a 
group of countries, including Thailand and Peru, that is scrutinizing 
the antiquities trade to a higher degree than in the past. With the 
filing of high-profile cultural property claims recently involving 
Italy, Greece, and Egypt — countries that have long been proactive about 
recovering antiquities they say were looted — other countries are 
starting to test the waters for claims of their own, he said.

"The antiquities trade has turned a corner," Mr. McAndrew said. "In my 
mind, I see a domino effect. Sooner or later, I see other countries 
trying to model Italy's success at recovering artifacts."

On April 17, 2006, a stolen Vishnu statue worth about $30,000 was turned 
over by ICE to the Indian government. The 250-pound sandstone statue was 
taken from a temple in the city of Mandsaur in the Madhya Pradesh state 
of India sometime in 2000, according to published reports. Mr. McAndrew 
was able to trace the statue to a New York gallery owner, Namkha Dorjee, 
who voluntarily surrendered the object to the government. It was being 
stored in a warehouse in Queens.

No one was charged with a crime because the original smuggler was 
murdered in Afghanistan during the course of the investigation. He was 
allegedly involved with another smuggling operation there, Mr. McAndrew 
said.

Since that investigation began in 2003, Indian officials have 
increasingly issued alerts about objects that may be heading to New 
York, which is one of the largest markets for antiquities collectors in 
the world, Mr. McAndrew said.

Mr. Ghanshyam said discussions were ongoing in India about how to better 
secure artifacts in remote villages, some of which had never been 
documented. It is virtually impossible to legally export an ancient 
object from India because permits to do so are never issued, he said.

Customs officials there are starting to use new technology to monitor 
outgoing shipments, and legislators are considering increasing the 
penalties for smuggling antiquities by amending the Antiquities and Art 
Treasures Act of 1972, Mr. Ghanashyam said.

Two New York gallery owners interviewed yesterday said they believe 
antiquities should be better protected in their home countries, but that 
the laws shouldn't restrict trade of antiquities altogether.

"There is a lot of good to this," the co-owner of E&J Frankel, Joel 
Frankel, said. "But, I'm still one of the old believers that sometimes 
when you make rules and laws too tight, nothing gets out, and the rest 
of the world doesn't have any idea of what material that country produces."

Mr. Frankel said he regularly turns away people who come to his gallery 
with objects that have unreliable histories, but that some collectors 
are willing to turn a blind eye.

Another gallery owner, Joseph Gerena, said: "So far the thrust of it has 
been overdramatized to demonize the collectors, museums, and dealers." 
The world is in danger of the "balkanization of culture" if pieces are 
horded in the countries from which they originate, he said.

Advocates of restricting the antiquities trade say the private market 
for ancient artifacts drives improper excavation around the world. The 
works can be damaged or slip from smuggler to collector without having 
ever been seen by an archaeologist or art historian, they say.

http://www.nysun.com/