[MSN] Group issues list of endangered Peruvian artifacts, urges public to be on alert.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Group issues list of endangered Peruvian artifacts, urges public to be on
alert 

The Associated Press 
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 
VIENNA, Austria: Peruvian antiquities - including mummies, statuettes made
of semiprecious stones and well-preserved textiles - are at high risk of
looting and illicit international trade, a group dedicated to preserving the
world's natural and cultural heritage said Wednesday.

The Paris-based International Council of Museums, issuing a list of
endangered Peruvian artifacts, appealed to authorities, the art world and
the general public to be on the alert.

The group, which works with Interpol and other agencies on art theft issues,
presented a "Red List" with 18 categories of Peruvian cultural artifacts
particularly at risk from looting and illicit art trade.

"The Red List is an appeal to museums, auction houses, art dealers and
collectors to provide all the necessary guarantees of provenance for every
purchase of a cultural antiquity coming from Peru," ICOM said in a statement
issued during the organization's general conference in Vienna.

"The idea is to illustrate the categories with examples so that customs
(officials) and police are able to identify them ... ones like them are
constantly stolen and regularly appear on the market," spokeswoman Jennifer
Thevenot told The Associated Press.


She said endangered items also could include fossils, coins and prints.
Thevenot added that the list of categories was not exhaustive but that
experts felt these were objects seen most often on the art market.

"The idea is that anyone thinking of buying an object thoroughly do their
homework," Thevenot said.

Attention has long been paid to the looting of Peru's archaeological sites
but thefts also happen in other historical and cultural sites, as well as
places of worship, "to fulfill a sustained market of age-old and exotic
objects," ICOM said.

In a separate document, ICOM noted that the roots of illicit traffic also
lie in Peru's "serious economic situation," and called for the
implementation of global policies to find economic alternatives and to teach
Peruvians "the necessity of respecting and protecting its cultural
heritage."

Previously, ICOM has issued similar lists about the risk faced by
antiquities in Africa, Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan. Future lists are
planned to focus on endangered cultural property in Central America and
Mexico (combined) and Cambodia, Thevenot said.

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On the Net:

http://icom.museum/

http://icom.museum/redlist/

http://www.icom-oesterreich.at/2007/index.html