No subject

Tycoon orders university to return his =91magic=92 artefacts

Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent=20
A buyer of antiquities is suing University College London for the return =
of
a multi-million-pound collection of ancient artefacts he lent it a =
decade
ago.=20

Martin Sch=F8yen, a Norwegian tycoon who has homes in London and Oslo, =
accuses
the university of giving him =93spurious reasons=94 for failing to =
return 654
Aramaic incantation bowls that date from the 1st century. He loaned the
bowls, which are inscribed with magical texts, for academic research
purposes in 1996. But two years ago the strength of criticism from =
scholars
about the bowls=92 provenance led the university to open an =
investigation.
Lord Renfrew of Kaims-thorn, director of the McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research, Cambridge, joined an independent ethics =
committee
headed by the lawyer David Freeman.=20

The committee=92s report was delivered last summer, and although UCL has =
yet
to publish it, the case will make other public institutions wary of =
handling
unprovenanced antiquities.=20

While Mr Sch=F8yen=92s claim that the bowls were exported legally from =
the
Middle East is being challenged, the collection remains in store at UCL. =


The angry owner is now taking legal action, insisting that access to the
collection was provided to UCL =93only for research purposes=94. He said =
in a
statement: =93In recent months, the Sch=F8yen Collection has become =
frustrated
with the waste of time and money caused by a lengthy and inconclusive
inquiry into provenance and with the spurious reasons being given for =
not
returning the bowls.=94=20

He added: =93The Sch=F8yen Collection . . . has now reluctantly come to =
the view
that legal proceedings are the only way forward.=94=20

The Sch=F8yen Collection, based in London and Oslo, boasts more than =
13,000
significant manuscripts and other artefacts of cultural importance =
spanning
5,000 years of history. Its jewels include fragments of the Dead Sea =
Scrolls
and the Dunhuang Buddhist trove.=20

Atle Omland, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural =
Heritage
Research, noted that Mr Sch=F8yen apparently has a document stating that =
the
bowls were exported legally from Jordan in 1988, even though they are
suspected to have been taken unlawfully from Iraq after 1990.=20

He said: =93There seem to be serious doubts about his export licence, =
that
[the document] is a fake . . . and that Iraq has the legal claim over =
them.
Legally, Iraq are the owners if they were taken out after 1990, and they
were taken out of Iraq.=94=20

The bowls are believed to have been used by Mesopota-mian Jews to ward =
off
evil spirits. Ancient Mesopotamia =97 the cradle of civilisation as the
birthplace of writing, codified law and astronomy =97 is modern-day =
Iraq.=20

The university=92s investigation was prompted by allegations against Mr
Sch=F8yen in a documentary by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and =
David
Hebditch, a British documentary maker.=20

The collector was unsuccessful when he appealed to Nor-way=92s =
equivalent of
the Press Complaints Commission to stop its screening.=20

When the bowls were lent to the university, there was no specific =
regulation
governing the acceptance of cultural objects by the university. =
Professor
Michael Worton, the Vice-Provost of UCL, declined to comment yesterday.=20


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