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Groundbreaking Return of STOLEN Artefacts & Banksy Set to Save Reading Jail!-WB 10thDec2021
86 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to Watching Brief. As the name implies, each week Marc (Mr Soup) & Andy Brockman of the Pipeline (Where history is tomorrow's news) cast an eye over news stories, topical media and entertainment and discuss and debate what they find.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/archaeosoup
***
0:00 Introduction
2:17 Following Up on Last Week
4:37 Michael Steinhardt & 180 Stolen Artefacts!
18:43 Comte de Paris & Banksy!?
37:44 Plans for Christmas Special
***
Link of the Week:
'Archaeorant: Save British Archaeology':
https://tinyurl.com/v8svt23u
AI Produces Art Based on Prompts:
https://app.wombo.art/
***
Links:
The Sidon Bull’s Head: Court Record Documents a Journey Through the Illicit Antiquities Trade:
D.A. Vance: Michael Steinhardt Surrenders 180 Stolen Antiquities Valued at $70 Million:
IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION FOR A WARRANT TO SEARCH THE PREMISES LOCATED AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 1000 5TH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORI 10028 ("THE TARGET PREMISES")
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/4059759/2017-09-22-Application-for-Turnover-Order.pdf
***
Banksy offers to raise £10m to buy Reading prison for art centre:
Banksy backs Reading Gaol arts centre plan:
Banksy pledges to help save Reading jail with stencil sale:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-59535099
The Comte de Paris demands return of Château de Chantilly:
https://www.tatler.com/article/jean-dorleans-chateau-de-chantilly-french-throne-hotel-fallout
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Soupcast and Archaeosoup
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Soupcast, coming to you from Archaeosoup Towers. By popular demand, we're taking selected videos from the Archaeosoup back catalogue and bringing them to you as convenient podcasts. As the name implies, with Archaeosoup you get a bit of everything thrown into the pot. Archaeology, discussion, humour and debate. You can find out more at archaeosoup.com. So sit back, relax and enjoy our hearty helping of Archaeosoup.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Watching Brief for the week of the 6th of December 2021.
Festive Traditions and Personal Anecdotes
00:00:44
Speaker
I am joined as ever by my, well not quite so festive as me it seems co-host, Mr Andy Brockman. Once again as you can tell our office is firmly seeing in the season. When does the stencil go up at House Brockman?
00:01:00
Speaker
Well, this goes right back to when I was a kid. We normally do our Christmas decorations more or less the last Sunday before Christmas. Okay, fair enough. But then that's good. We tend to have a real tree and we keep it up until traditionally 12th night. And then needles can just about last that period without falling all over the floor. Yeah, that's good.
00:01:24
Speaker
It's funny actually, not to get off topic immediately, but it's interesting how many people do take down their decorations on Boxing Day. I've always found that to be very strange, but in our case we tend to start at the beginning of December, largely because we dislike the atmosphere, but actually growing up it was always a Christmas Eve mad dash, and often my mum would be up until two in the morning passing up decorations.
00:01:50
Speaker
She said it was because she liked the transformation for Christmas. I think it was because she, you know, we always, we just sort of slightly forgetful. But anyway.
00:02:00
Speaker
It's one of those times of the year that's very difficult to lose track of, isn't it? It is, yeah. Oh, I see what you did there. We'll come back to Christmas parties, I think, at the end of this week's watching. Or not. Or not.
Archaeological Messaging and Community Response
00:02:17
Speaker
Anyway, regardless of our ability to remember things that did or did not happen, we are continuing with our watch. Or may or may not have been a party.
00:02:29
Speaker
We're going, it's at the end, we're going, we're talking about the, our watching brief continues. And this week we're resuming a normal service with a fairly normal, he says, watching brief with a couple of stories that are of interest. But before we get into those stories, is there anything that we want to say following last week's watching brief and what's happened in the time between now and then or then and now?
00:02:58
Speaker
The only thing I would say is that obviously the story that we ran about the apparent attempts by leading archaeological bodies to control messages about archaeology and in particular to prevent an independent organization.
00:03:13
Speaker
the Campaign to Save British Archaeology, campaigning for university archaeology. It has caused few ripples maybe and I think the main thing, you know, conversations are being had, videos are being watched and I think the main thing to be said is that Professor Howard Williams, who was one of our leading
00:03:33
Speaker
witnesses in our investigations published his own take on the events, which I think only serves to reinforce the story that we told. You know, people in the sector will decide whether or not it's important and how to react. Yeah, yeah. Okay, fair enough.
00:03:55
Speaker
make that probably the link of the week I guess below so people can follow up if they want to by clicking onto that blog post. And we'll also actually have an additional link of the week that I think is a bit of fun as well and that is
AI Art in Archaeology
00:04:10
Speaker
Archaeology Twitter, and I think academic Twitter exploded over the weekend, last weekend, just gone, with an AI bot that produces artwork based on inputs. So people have been putting in their
00:04:28
Speaker
the title of their thesis, or I actually put in archaeology history and soup, it got an interesting image, and then I put in the, well, as many academic texts have a title and a subtitle, I put in the main title of my dissertation, and also got an interesting result. So that's something to play with, I guess, at home, if you haven't already. I mean, we're a week behind on that, but if you haven't come across it already, it's a bit of fun.
00:04:55
Speaker
and it may play into this year's Christmas celebrations. But again, that's for later. That's for later on, isn't it? Yeah. Right. All of that to one side. Let us begin.
Looted Antiquities and Legal Outcomes
00:05:07
Speaker
And we're starting with an interesting story that you brought my attention to on a website that I had never heard of, actually. Chasing Aphrodite, the hunt for looted antiquities in the world's museums. What is going on, Mr Brockman?
00:05:25
Speaker
Right. This is a story about the antiquities trade. And in particular, a chase everybody, which is one of the leading websites which looks at the issues around looted antiquities and the restitution of looted antiquities to the people they actually belong to the countries they actually belong to.
00:05:46
Speaker
Carried a story based on a press release from the district attorney from Manhattan, Cy Vance Jr, who had been carrying out an investigation, his department had been carrying out an investigation into the antiquities trade in New York, in particular, to a collector called Michael Steinhardt, who is a billionaire hedge fund manager.
00:06:15
Speaker
Basically, the core of the story, and it's always in the first paragraph, if you look at the press release that
00:06:24
Speaker
is in front of me now, it's what the Chasing Aphrodite story was based on. Michael Steinhardt had been investigated by the DA of Manhattan and the upshot of it was that 180 stolen antiquities from his collection, which are valued at around $70 million,
00:06:44
Speaker
were going to be surrendered by Steinhardt and will be returned to the government under whose jurisdiction they should have been all along. And Steinhardt in particular has accepted what is described as a first-of-a-kind lifetime ban on acquiring further antiquities. Very interesting.
00:07:08
Speaker
I'm sorry, I say interesting in so much, and maybe I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit here, but presumably if it's the first of its kind, is there going to be special measures to monitor this? Possibly.
00:07:21
Speaker
I think this is a sign that legal jurisdictions are getting, certainly in the West, and obviously we're talking here about the United States. Under the United States system, the local district attorneys have quite a lot of power. They're significant local politicians and legal officers.
00:07:45
Speaker
Among other things on Vance's to-do list is an investigation against Donald Trump's business empire. Never heard of him. Apparently he had some kind of official office until about 18 months ago. But no, in all seriousness, the District Attorney of Manhattan in particular is one of the most powerful
00:08:07
Speaker
legal offices in the state. And so this is a really strong statement about, shall we say, the allegations that have been around for a long time that the antiquities trade, the commercial antiquities trade, the big arts, big museums and big auction houses have a somewhat, shall we say,
00:08:32
Speaker
occasionally loose relationship with the legalities of some of the objects that they acquire and then sell. Very no stronger than that. Expertly worded, Mr Brockman.
00:08:48
Speaker
Well, the investigation that advances department in again, in this press release about the Steinhardt case, they state that the investigation just into that particular case, and those 180 stolen antiquities involved 11 countries, tracking 12 different criminal smuggling networks.
Facilitators of Stolen Artifacts: Free Ports
00:09:11
Speaker
And we're talking about a major deployment of investigatory resources over a number of years and involving the legal and police entities in 11 different countries, from the Far East through Western Europe to the United States. It should be said as well that one particular item
00:09:35
Speaker
which is a bull's head sculpture that was found in Lebanon, was put into storage and was stolen by phalanges militias during the Lebanese Civil War and ended up being exported via the Geneva Freeport to the States. It really exposes
00:09:54
Speaker
the whole mechanism really by which these objects are acquired, trafficked, sometimes stored. The issue of free ports is a significant one and we're seeing that being talked about again in Britain because free ports are central to Chancellor Richard Sinnack's
00:10:13
Speaker
economic plans for the country but as we see in this case they can be used for ill as well as good. Yeah but we're also seeing actually similarly and we've talked about this in previous watching briefs in this country a growing confidence or the very least a growing public desire to apparently
00:10:35
Speaker
monitor valuable objects that may have a tie to national heritage stories. I speculated that coupled with free ports in this country, actually, what some of these laws might be about is not so much making sure that valuable
00:10:55
Speaker
especially items with golden silver content, don't leave the country as it will without being monitored and possibly text or not text in the right way. And also therefore maybe adding and being able to add to the national story, but it actually may be part of enabling a more fluid international exchange of goods. The thing is,
00:11:25
Speaker
We won't know until all of this stuff comes in in this country how this works and what the barriers and checks are. It's just an interesting thing to compare here. The use of reports absolutely was a factor. And this deputy DA, Matthew Bogdanos, I believe is how you pronounce his name, also found time to write a book during the course of his investigation.
Case Studies in Antiquities Networks
00:11:50
Speaker
The Thieves of Baghdad won Marines passion to recover the world's greatest treasures. It's a heck of a story and I suppose a question that I'm curious about because this is the first time I'm properly hearing about this. I think I've heard bits and bobs over the years but
00:12:07
Speaker
To what extent do you think this is going to prove a useful case study for archaeologists who are interested in this? Or frankly, anyone who's interested in these sorts of networks? Because there have been some really good journals over the years. There are journals of illicit antiquities and so on and so forth that publish analyses of some networks. But this is a cohesive story. It looks like it could be a really useful case study.
00:12:29
Speaker
It certainly is. Anybody that's interested in this, I'd urge to go to, and we'll put the link below the line, but I will go to what's called an application for a turnover order to the Supreme Court in the state of New York, which is in fact filed by Matthew Bogdanos, the attorney who was in charge of this particular
00:12:49
Speaker
case. And it's only 68 pages long, but it's written very clearly and it lays out the entire track really of this particular ballshead artifact, how it was acquired, how it was stolen, how it was trafficked, how it was then
00:13:12
Speaker
put onto the commercial market and ended up in the hands of two private collectors, the last of whom is Steinhardt. But the whole thing also came about because it was lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the world's great art museums.
00:13:37
Speaker
um and then and that's where it was spotted that it was potentially stolen. Yeah so again it's hugely embarrassing not just the commercial antiquities trade but also for what you might say is the legitimate museum world. Yeah yeah absolutely very interesting um so I should say I giggled there because the idea of someone saying let me see your warrant and you producing a 66 page document is quite funny. Maybe they showed it on an iPad maybe that was that what happened at the door um
00:14:06
Speaker
It was, I need to make it, it was the application for Warren. No idea, okay, okay. So that Warren would still just be a piece of paper. It was the legal case, it was the legal case for the judge to grant the warrant, which of course they were. Okay, yeah. But also this, I used the word vulnerable there very deliberately and so it's interesting how the lending of artifacts from seemingly private collections to public spaces does make them
00:14:36
Speaker
you know, as it were, vulnerable to scrutiny. And it's, yeah, I'm going to have to read this book. I'm going to have to look into this in more detail, I think, and I advise people at home to do similar. I think it's worth finishing, actually, just a quote from the DA Vance's department press release about this whole case, because it sets out really the
00:15:05
Speaker
the intellectual and the humanitarian and
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, just the humanitarian actually rationale for this. We talk a lot about restitution and reparation and so on. We talk about the Benin bronzes, we've talked recently about the also about the path and the marbles. And this is where those issues become very stark, because we are dealing here with
00:15:36
Speaker
definitely caught bang to rights, plundered artefacts. And what do a fancy department said in the press release quote? For decades, Michael Steinhardt, collector.
00:15:48
Speaker
displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artefacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe. His pursuit of new, quote, new additions to showcase and sell new geographical moral boundaries as reflected in sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection. Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
And then this is the key point. Even though Steinhardt's decade-long indifference to the rights of peoples to own their sacred treasures is appalling, the interests of justice prior to indictment and trial favour a resolution that ensures a substantial portion of the damage to our cultural heritage will be undone once and for all.
00:16:33
Speaker
Accordingly, this agreement guarantees that 180 pieces will be returned expeditiously to their rightful owners in 11 countries, rather than be held as evidence for the years necessary to comply with a grand jury indictment trial, potential convictions and sentence. In other words, they've moved to get the stuff that is clearly stolen returned to proper jurisdictions as soon as practical. Yeah, so it's not just hanging around in limbo. Absolutely. That's right. That's right.
00:17:06
Speaker
To be fair, the American courts moved quite quickly on Hobby Lobby as well. And it has to be fair to Hobby Lobby. They did hand everything over without too much of a fight. But again, if you're talking about the acquisition of artifacts in... Yeah. Our friends at the Hobby Lobby were at the very...
00:17:26
Speaker
Hobby Lobby. Anyway, so
00:17:32
Speaker
I spoke very kindly, naive and driven by an ideology, in that they wanted to create the Museum of the Bible to represent their views of the history of the Middle East and the religions of the Middle East.
00:17:49
Speaker
Steinhardt is a top of the range, very experienced collector over many years dealing with the very top of the international art market, antiquities market. So in a sense, he's, you know, if Hobby Lobby is the, you know, is League One,
00:18:08
Speaker
a best middle table championship. Steinhardt is premiership in terms of collectors and to have a collector like that accept a lifetime ban on collecting for other antiquities I think is quite significant hopefully. Yeah absolutely and just one last question presumably he was accepting this in lieu of for example a present sentence or some other potential punishment
00:18:33
Speaker
I'm not sure what the exact deal is, yes, but it certainly looks like some sort of arrangement has been come to. He'll surrender the material, he'll accept a lifetime ban, and then as currently understood, they may well leave him alone. The reputational damage is done.
00:18:56
Speaker
That's it though, with those empty shelves, now he can go to the hobby lobby and start
Controversy Over Chateau de Chantilly
00:19:00
Speaker
crafting. You know, he can put some of his own artwork on display. This is an opportunity for him. Anyway, moving on. I'm not going there!
00:19:11
Speaker
Moving on, we have a story in the Tatler, which I found very interesting. And I'm always interested in stories in the Tatler because the Tatler is the newspaper that appears in the Hannibal stories, especially in the dragon, I think. The Tatler features very prominently there. And I thought it wasn't a real thing until not that long ago when I came across my face. Have you ever been to a dentist? No, no.
00:19:40
Speaker
I have, I have. I've never seen the Tatler in a dentist's chair. The Tatler, Country Life, all those magazines that you never know anybody who buys. They appear in dentist's waiting rooms. Yeah, I had no idea. I didn't know. I do go to the dentist. I have an appointment in January, in fact, for a filling. Anyway.
00:20:01
Speaker
This is a story of the Comte de Paris, who is demanding the return of Chateau de Chantilly, because he thinks it's being mistreated. The descendant of France's last king, the pretender to the French throne, is infuriated by plans to turn his old family estate into an uber luxury hotel.
00:20:27
Speaker
This is a curious situation because the Comte de Paris, Jean is his name, and he's the senior male descendant by primogenitor of the male line of King Louis-Philippe, who ruled France as France's last king, is accusing the state of not adhering to his ancestors' wishes that the estate not be altered in any meaningful way.
00:20:56
Speaker
It's supposedly going to be turned into a state-of-the-art hotel under current plans. And previously, it has actually been used as a film set. I didn't realise this, but it's in A View to a Kill. It's Mr Zorin's house, apparently. This is an interesting situation, though, because it speaks to the relationship between, I suppose, the state bequeathments and changing times.
00:21:24
Speaker
And the ability for states to actually hold on to these sorts of places of interest in a way that isn't a burden necessarily, especially in financial terms.
00:21:40
Speaker
Apparently in 1886 an ancestor of the Comp de Paris donated the estate which also includes a second smaller chateau and numerous outbuildings to the Institute of France, a body that represents and promotes French culture, particularly in the UK, but there were strings attached to the donation, notably that the architecture of the chateau and its outbuildings would never be modified or objects in them moved.
00:22:05
Speaker
Fairly to respect the Duke's wishes would lead to the revocation of the bequest and the return of the estate to the Duke's family under the agreement according to the Comp de Paris. What do you think of this? It's interesting because we often find situations where there are buildings of interest
00:22:24
Speaker
especially to a local community, that either are deemed to be in the way, possibly a progress, maybe for a housing development, or they're deemed to be no longer really functional, but they are sort of often of architectural interest. And if local authorities, particularly, for example, in this country, councils can't afford their upkeep, then their destiny becomes
00:22:47
Speaker
quite, you know, quite ardently debated. Often they're either going to be demolished or they're going to be put on some sort of, you know, list somewhere. They're going to be listed or protected in some other way. Is this sort of negotiating an attention here that maybe there are other ways of dealing with? For example, should the current comp, the parry, take ownership of that building if the institute can't look after it?
00:23:19
Speaker
I think this is one of those really interesting, really complicated stories when there's actually more to it than maybe meets the eye in terms of a simple exposition like that. I mean, you're quite right.
00:23:35
Speaker
People who follow horse racing might recognise the name Chantilly because of the race course which is associated with Chateau. Medievalists will almost certainly be familiar with the illustrations from the Prédéricieux de l'Étte du Paris, which is a very famous medieval book of ours and that is held in the library at the Chateau, the Petit Chateau de Chantilly.
00:24:05
Speaker
So, you know, this is a culturally, this is right at the center of certainly French culture, certainly medieval European culture. But also modern high end sport, as we see with the horse racing. And in fact, if you look into the history of restorations at the