Looting Art

The main purpose of the project is to discuss the possibility of returning Palestinian Materials, Images and Archives, visual and others, that were seized or looted by Jewish/Israeli forces/soldiers and individual since the first decades of the 20t century and which are now held by Israel in its official archives.
The proposed project aims
1. To chart the mechanism of looting and seizure and the types and scope of materials/archives/image that were taken by individuals or by organized military forces.
2. to deal with the way the materials/archives/image are held and controlled by Israel
3. to sketch a draft on how to return the seized and looted materials/archives/image to their legal owners and the public sphere and discuss obstacles that may be raised during this process.

The paper was writen by Rona Sela for swissforpeace

The center of the art world before the war, Paris fired the Nazis’ greed. The discovery of more than 1,500 prized paintings and drawings in a private Munich residence, as well as a recent movie about Allied attempts to recover European works of art, have brought Nazi plundering back into the headlines, but the thievery was far from being limited to works of art. From 1942 onwards, ordinary Parisian Jews—mostly poor families and recent immigrants from Eastern Europe—were robbed, not of sculptures or paintings, but of toys, saucepans, furniture, and sheets. Witnessing the Robbing of the Jews tells how this vast enterprise of plunder was implemented in the streets of Paris by analyzing images from an album of photographs found in the Federal Archives of Koblenz. Brought from Paris in 1945, the photographs were cataloged by the staff of the Munich Central Collecting Point. Beyond bearing witness to the petty acts of larceny, these images provide crucial information on how the Germans saw their work. They enable us to grasp the “Nazi gaze” and to confront the issue of the relation between greed and mass destruction.

"These photographs reveal a whole new dimension of the Nazi spoliation of Jewish property in occupied France. Art theft is well known. Who knew that the Nazis also sent to Germany 674 trainloads of household goods from the apartments of deported Jews? The heaps of used toys, pans, chairs, and clocks are a pitiful final trace of destroyed families. They also show how the Nazis tried to anonymize their victims for annihilation, and to profit from their distress. Sarah Gensburger has edited them with precision and with a keen sense of multiple ways to read images." —Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France and The Anatomy of Fascism

"With piercing insight, Sarah Gensburger guides readers through this extraordinary collection of German photographs documenting the Nazi looting of Jewish homes in wartime Paris. At the operation’s height up to eighty French moving vans a day hauled plunder to secret German depots in the heart of the city where Jewish prisoners were forced to pack the shipping crates bound for Germany. Gensburger’s account captures what these pictures reveal, ironically, about a project designed to eradicate all traces of its victims and their world. A singular contribution to Holocaust history and a brilliant model of photographic analysis." —Herrick Chapman, editor, French Politics, Culture, and Society

In the first days of February, 1945, short time before de Battle of Berlin, the Spanish Embassy in Berlin helped the Reich Government to transfer art looted and jewels to Madrid, abusing the laws and benefits of diplomatic inmunity from search

International conventions that criminalize wartime abuse of cultural property and bilateral treaties that target trafficking in antiquities reflect evolving consideration for looted art in foreign policy. Since the poignant plunder of Jewish collections by Nazi authorities, restitution of artworks has garnered political clout, and looting of developing nations during the Cold War era compounded the significance of cultural property in international affairs. In parallel, the increasing financial volume of the art market over the past half-century has attracted the attention of transnational organized crime and has implications for funding of terrorist groups. This paper examines how security-intelligence services of World War II and the Cold War controlled the looting and recovery of cultural property. Related activities in the post-Cold War period suggest that applications for foreign intelligence on looted art have expanded from diplomacy to security policy.

What happens to art in time of war?  Who should own art, and what is its appropriate context? Should the victorious ever allow the defeated to keep their art?  These questions were posed by Cicero in speeches he gave in 70 BCE, when he prosecuted the Roman governor of Greek Sicily, Gaius Verres, for extortion during his time in office. Cicero’s  published speeches had a very long afterlife, affecting debates about collecting art in the 18th century, and reactions to the looting of art by Napoleon. The focus of this book is on those speeches by Cicero, and what they reveal about the context of Verres’ trial, Roman attitudes toward Greek art, and how the text illuminates the history of Greek Sicily. The subsequent impact of Cicero’s arguments on legal thinking about cultural property is also discussed, concluding with the decisions made by the Duke of Wellington after Waterloo in Paris in autumn, 1815.

"‘Who Owns Ancient Art and Cultural Heritage?’
This rather flamboyant – and to a certain extent, misleading – question has been hotly debated by academics and interested parties for almost three decades. During this time, various arguments have appeared in favor of individual, collective, or national viewpoints, construed in Western priorities and conceptual frameworks, together with the relevant issues of collecting, looting, ethics, politics, and legal frameworks."

In 2018, the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation (EHRF) launched a two-year project to document the minbars (stepped pulpits) made during Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), and still present in many religious monuments in Egypt and international collections. In this paper I present explain why the project was conceived and how it was delivered. I describe the efforts made by the EHRF team to restore, conserve and protect these masterpieces of Mamluk art. The project was funded by the British Council's Cultural Protection Fund. It was implemented in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The fourth known pre-Columbian Maya codex—the only one discovered in the 20th century—was found by looters in the mid-1960s. First exhibited in New York in 1971, what has come to be known as the Grolier Codex is half of a hybrid-style 20-page, 104-year Mesoamerican divinatory Venus Almanac. With new radiocarbon dates that place it in the 13th century CE, it is likely to be the oldest surviving book on paper from the Americas as well as the only ancient Maya codex now residing in Mexico. Although most Mayanists have accepted it as authentic, based in part on the author’s 40 years of research,* it remains an unacknowledged Mexican national treasure as it has never been officially recognized except in the State of Chiapas. Mesoamerican Venus Almanacs were widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to regulate practices of sacred warfare and ritual sacrifice, the goal of which was to obtain captives whose blood was shed to invoke the personified forces of rain and fertility. The Grolier Codex offers unique images of 10 of the 20 manifestations of Venus (named in the Maya Dresden Codex), greatly enriching our knowledge of these traditions documented in four other pre-Columbian codices as well as numerous archaeological and ethnohistoric sources. This article is a summary of the talk given on November 7, 2014 to the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC and includes a brief history of accounts of the discovery of the Grolier Codex and allegedly associated artifacts; photographic history; outlines the author’s comprehensive program of research, including several new scientific discoveries leading to an interpretation of the Codex—based on the Dresden Codex and other sources; and offers a new Latinized name that recognizes that the “Codex Mayano-Mexicanus” is an authentic ancient book deriving from the Maya culture and now properly residing in Mexico.

          *See <http://umd.academia.edu/JohnBCarlson>.

Also utilized as part of the November 7, 2014 talk are TWO 1983 historical STUDY GUIDE documents which can be viewed at the following academia.edu links:

• GROLIER CODEX Page Study Guide: Pages 1-9 and Reconstructed Page 10/11 (1983): 

https://www.academia.edu/7911420/GROLIER_CODEX_Page_Study_Guide_Pages_1-9_and_Reconstructed_Page_10_11

• GROLIER CODEX Comparative Study Guide (1983): Grolier pages 1-9 and reconstructed page 10/11 with Maya Dresden Codex Venus Almanac page numbers 48/1 – 50/2 with Venus Station and Directional Associations; Names (on Dresden Rows 17 & 22) of the associated Venus Impersonators; and Initial (1983) interpretations of the Grolier Codex scenes & iconographic interpretations. Over the three decades since 1983, some of the glyphic and iconographic interpretations have changed, as discussed in the presentation. The details are in press:

https://www.academia.edu/9208071/GROLIER_CODEX_Comparative_Study_Guide_1983_

*****

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Egyptian mummies, Scythian gold, and Chinese terracotta soldiers in blockbuster exhibits and permanent galleries all attest to widespread public interest in museum-going, in seeing visible remains of the past in well-lit, attractive, and gently didactic settings. Yet many of our prestigious art museums have come under intense and uncomfortable scrutiny because of their practices. Their purchases, gifts, and loans of antiquities have raised ethical and moral questions. To what extent have public (and private) collections been formed as a result of the looting of archaeological sites? Do museums exercise due diligence in background checks on their purchases? Do such purchases encourage looters to destroy yet more archaeological sites so as to make more sales? Under what circumstances should the looted art be repatriated to its presumed source country? What about older collections, formed before international laws restricted such purchases? Should they be returned? Do the various missions of museums (to educate the public, to preserve and conserve items) trump all other concerns? To whom should we entrust the remains of the past?

A pre-study concerning history of the painting taken from Prague to Sweden
during the Thirty Years War is the Aim of this thesis.
An investigation of previous research concerning the looting of the paintings, until 1648 in royal
and noble collections in Prague. These became throught a plunder part of Swedish collection and
some remained in Sweden until today. The purpose is to prepare and present an examination of
this topic for future research. Whose collections possibly came to Sweden from Prague? The
peace negotiations were already done, and by attacking Prague Sweden had no change of
changing the outcome of these negotiations. Why did than did the looting take place? Was it the
monetary value of the art works that was interesting, are we dealing a demonstration of power,
what were the possible intentions of looting Prague? What was the destiny of the collections
after arriving to Sweden, how were they perceived? These questions will be discussed.
Published resources on this topic will be consulted, but the most important part of this thesis is
the investigation of archival resources. Material such as inventories and letters are briefly
studied and presented.
This research opens possibilities for a future research of the history and historical as well as
contemporary narrative of the paintings taken form Prague, many which are today part of
Swedish public collections

This paper focuses on the impact of the war and subsequent occupation (2003–2011) on Iraq’s heritage, documenting the most significant and devastating instances of heritage damage and destruction that occurred. Moving forward, this chapter continues with a discussion of the grave challenges facing Iraqi heritage beyond the withdrawal of US military forces in the form of various groups - from jihadist networks such as the 'Islamic State' through to various sectarian actors. It also discusses the threat to heritage sites from development, neglect, and inexpert and haphazard excavation, preservation, protection, and restoration. Despite this troubling scenario, this chapter also examines the extent to which the Iraq conflict was a turning point for major Western military operations and the development of CPP programs which aim to better prepare military personnel for protecting cultural property in future conflicts.

Beyond the devastation and tragedy of human lives precipitated by the conflict in Syria, priceless representations of ancient culture and history have likewise fallen victim to a seemingly never-ending maelstrom of destruction. Ancient monuments and art have either been destroyed, damaged, or lost as chaos persists in a region that has for thousands of years seen the footprint of a parade of civilizations. (...)
The scenes tell the story of the founding of Pella/Apamea and further development of this city on the Orontes river. Three main groups of scenes can be distinguished: (1) the foundation of Pella-on-the-Orontes by the legendary Archippos, (2) the (re)foundation of the city as Apamea-on-the-Orontes (earlier Pella-on-the-Orontes) by Seleucus I Nikator and the simultaneous financial generosity of his wife, Apama, for the development of the new Seleucid colony in 300 BC, and (3) the raising of the town fortifications around monumental public buildings and an illustration of the daily life of a joyous people living in the rich Apamean agglomeration and hinterland. Features of style date the panels to the 4th century AD.

In his epitome Justin related Pompeius Trogus’ story, who apparently wanted to convince his readers that Attalos III, who was insane, accused his relatives of poisoning Berenike and Stratonike. Before he died he had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Sallust adduced the words of Mithridates VI, who considered Attalos’ testament a Roman forgery. What we know from Justin’s version is the Roman version, which was produced to justify the annexation of a foreign country and the seizure of the Attalids’ immense treasures. Attalos was one of the best educated Hellenistic monarchs, a lover and patron of the arts and sciences, a sculptor and a man of letters. With the slaying of Attalos III and his closest relatives the Roman senators also terminated the last great project of patronage over the Hellenic arts, letters and sciences.

We have known for some time that a number of paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum – e.g. significant works by Carlo Maratta, Guido Reni and Francesco Trevisani – were once in the collection assembled by the Albani family. But until now little was known about how these artworks (c. 35 pieces) had come to Vienna. Recently discovered sources, an examination of inventories, and markings on the paintings themselves closely link their history to Napoleon’s looting of art; removed from the Palazzo Albani in 1798 during the French occupation of Rome, they were on their way to France when seized by Austrian troops at Ferrara in 1799. Regarded as booty, the paintings were subsequently sent to Vienna. Some of them were later returned to Prince Carlo Albani while others were acquired from him. The authors show, however, that paintings from the Albani Collection were not the only works to find their way to Vienna; they were joined by other major works from the Vatican, among them Giorgio Vasari’s altarpiece from the Chapel of St Peter Martyr and pictures from the collection of Pope Pius VI (Braschi). Circa 350 paintings with a Roman provenance were confiscated at Ferrara, Bologna and Milan in 1799–1800, many of which can now for the first time be identified in the holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. This re-evaluation leads also to several new attributions.

The scenes tell the story of the founding of Pella/Apamea and further development of this city on the Orontes river. Three main groups of scenes can be distinguished: (1) the foundation of Pella-on-the-Orontes by the legendary Archippos, (2) the (re)foundation of the city as Apamea-on-the-Orontes (earlier Pella-on-the-Orontes) by Seleucus I Nikator and the simultaneous financial generosity of his wife, Apama, for the development of the new Seleucid colony in 300 BC, and (3) the raising of the town fortifications around monumental public buildings and an illustration of the daily life of a joyous people living in the rich Apamean agglomeration and hinterland. Features of style date the panels to the 4th century AD.

The April 21, 1971 New York Times article by George Gent covering the opening of the Grolier Club exhibition, "Ancient Mayan Calligraphy" with interview quotes by Yale anthropologist Michael D. Coe. The article focuses on the significant importance of the Grolier Codex and features the first published photographs of four of the Codex pages by a NYT photographer.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Grolier Codex.

Cet article se propose de situer les avancées historiographiques sur les films spoliés pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, dans l’histoire plus large du patrimoine en temps de guerre et d’après-guerre. Il s’agit de mettre en perspective ces acquis récents, de montrer ce qu’ils apportent à une histoire croisée du patrimoine, des violences et des réparations. Ces recherches s’affranchissent des découpages chronologiques et géographiques conventionnels et embrassent les périodes de guerre et de guerre froide tant à l’Ouest qu’à l’Est du rideau de fer. La première partie analyse la place des films dans les pillages et spoliations nazis. La seconde partie retrace ce que l’on sait du destin du patrimoine cinématographique spolié pendant la longue guerre froide et restitue des dialectiques de secret, d’oubli et de mémoire qui ont perduré jusqu’aux années 1990 et expliquent une historiographie encore très fragmentaire.

This article addresses the historiographical advances related to the films that were looted during the World War Two. It sets out to place them among a broader history of cultural goods in times of war and postwar. These recent works are put in perspective, in order to show their contribution to an entangled history of cultural heritage, violence and reparations. Freed from conventional chronological and geographical divisions,
they embrace periods of War and Cold War, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The
article first analyses how films and cinema industry took place in Nazi lootings and
pillages. The second part presents what we do know about the fate of plundered film
heritage during a long Cold War, and finally concludes by attempting to interpret a
dialectical relationship between secrecy, oblivion and memory which continued until
the 1990s and explains a still fragmentary historiography.

After a short introduction referring to the most significant characteristics of the late Professor Spyros Marinatos’s personality as an excavator, an academic and in general as a public persona of his times, this paper deals with his contribution to the repatriation of Greek antiquities to their homeland. The antiquities under discussion were stolen from Crete by the German occupation forces during the 2nd World War. The paper is mainly based on documents kept in the Archives of the Greek Ministry of Culture, namely The Directorate of the National Archive of Monuments. These documents include the correspondence between various public services, regarding, among other matters, the preparation of Spyros Marinatos’s trip to Austria, Italy and Germany, as well as catalogues of the stolen and repatriated antiquities. The whole undertaking, which was adventurous, highlights his persistence and devotion to duty and his country as well as his love for archaeology.

It is common for American museums to circumvent the moral complications of Nazi spoliated art restitution through the use of litigation and technical defenses. This dissertation argues that the contemporary treatment of human remains can be applied to amend the current ineffective and unethical repatriation systems of Holocaust looted artwork within the United States (US). This study (1) identifies parallels between human remains and Holocaust spoliated artworks, utilising the anthropological theories of personhood and social agency, as well as object embodiment, memory, trauma, and death, (2) comparatively analyses the role of US legislation, litigation, international agreements, and museum policies in the repatriation of human remains and Nazi looted art, (3) recommends the use of a third party arbitration board in amending current American systems of repatriation. This dissertation finds that in the case of Holocaust era looted artworks, legislation is ineffective, litigation is unethical, and vague guidelines and policies are unenforceable. Much similar to human remains, Nazi spoliated art claims must be handled outside of litigation.  Ultimately, this study asserts that the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) have both the power and capacity to put in place an objective arbitration body, providing effective, enforceable, and ethical handling of Nazi spoliated art claims within the US museum community.

An anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising began in northern China in 1899, dubbed the “Boxer Rebellion” by the foreign powers that subsequently invaded China. In the course of events, troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance began to arrive in Beijing in August 1900 and occupied the city. During this time countless works of art were looted and many of these were subsequently traded on the international art market. A significant number of these were originally housed in the Ziguang Ge (紫光閣, Hall of Imperial Splendour), and their dispersal is a key subject of the present article.
The Ziguang Ge was part of an imperial park to the west of the Forbidden City called the “Win¬ter Palace” by Europeans. This area was given to the Germans as headquarters for the com¬mander-in-chief for the coalition army under the command of Field Marshal Alfred Graf von Waldersee (1832-1904). Contemporary publica¬tions demonstrate how the German army set¬tled in this area and how German soldiers treat¬ed artworks located there as their property. It is therefore not surprising that many works of art from this area are either in German museum collections today or have entered the art mar¬ket from German collections. As the Ziguang Ge housed specific artworks, paintings, and other works of art with military motifs, their origin and whereabouts can be easily documented.

As Italy’s artistic heritage, both antiquities and fine art, has been hardest hit by the illicit art trade, these papers will focus on the country’s historic spoliation during the Renaissance, Napoleonic and Grand Tour periods, through the 20th to 21st centuries. The talks will present the history of how Italian artistic patrimony made its way into European and American private and public collections. Italy and receiving countries have sharpened their laws and policing so that recoveries and prosecutions towards restitution are on the rise.
Organised by Dr. Eleni Vassilika, this conference is aimed not only at students but also art world and museum professionals, indeed anyone interested to hear the latest information, much of which is unpublished, and to learn more about the surprising realities.

By examining the historically progressive role of cultural property in terrorism and political violence, this paper reveals the evolving significance of art to international security. Over the past two centuries, abuse of antiquities and fine art has evolved from the spoils-of-war into a medium for conducting terrorism which strives to erase the cultural heritage of ‘the other’. In contrast to wartime destruction and plunder which date back millennia, the growth of the art market over the past fifty years has created opportunities for novel abuses of cultural property. Since World War II, maturing international awareness has recognized the threat which armed conflict and looting pose to cultural property, but in parallel, art trafficking and the politics of cultural property have become tools for transnational organized crime and terrorist groups. The resulting unique intersection of issues in art, politics and counterterrorism forms the basis for a new field—cultural security. After an assessment of topical security threats which suggest the need for such a field, the paper concludes by speculating on international-security risks precipitating from antiquities trafficking and collecting.

The essay examines the Impressionist Exhibition at the 1948 Venice Biennale as a crossroads of cultural policies. From the intellectual militancy of the Secretary General, Rodolfo Pallucchini, to the loan strategy, from the Nazi looting of works of art, to political and diplomatic tensions at the first chills of the Cold War.

On September 13, 2020 a quarter of a century had elapsed since the Swiss and Italian authorities raid in the Free Port of Geneva, on the warehouses of Giacomo Medici, later convicted of involvement in cases of trafficked antiquities. Since then, many other raids followed on properties of other notorious antiquities traffickers, thousands of antiquities were confiscated from them and their invaluable archives were discovered and seized. The research on these archives resulted in hundreds of notable repatriations so far, but mainly in the enrichment of our knowledge about the criminal way in which the so-called 'reputable' members of the international antiquities market have been acting since the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which they completely ignored in practice. Despite the numerous occasions on which these 'reputable' members were identified as involved, even today they continue to act in the same way, some without any (or known) legal sanctions. This chapter reviews the illicit associations of one of these 'prominent' members of the international antiquities market, the 'Royal-Athena Galleries' in New York, a gallery run by the antiquities dealer Jerome Eisenberg, who has repeatedly been found selling looted, smuggled and stolen antiquities. I then present seven antiquities, most of them identified in October 2019, one in March 2020, soon before the retirement of Jerome Eisenberg and the closure of 'Royal-Athena Galleries' on October 31, 2020. This piece lays out all the relevant evidence from the confiscated archives and combines everyone involved to illustrate the network that 'circulated' these seven objects. This case study also highlights all the problems that are ongoing in this research field, proving that essentially nothing has changed since 1995, or even 1970, and we indeed deserve the (illicit) antiquities market we still have.

In 72-69 B.C., L. Lucullus successively captured the most important urban centres of the kingdom of Pontus, and Tigranocerta in Armenia. His army also operated in the kingdom of Commagene und in Upper Mesopotamia. Lucullus’ military campaign was continued by Pompey. We come across incidental information about the scale of robbery and destruction committed by the Roman army (the statue of Autolycus by Sthennis in Sinope, the temple of Ma in Comana, the secret archives of Mithradates VI, the Roman library of Lucullus, the treasures of Darius the Achaemenid). Some objects of the plundered art appeared in public at the triumphal shows of wealth in Rome, which was perfunctorily documented by Pliny the Elder, Appianus of Alexandria and Plutarch (63 and 61 B.C.). Artworks were also acquired by functionaries of the occupying administration from urban communities and private persons through extortion and blackmail. The Roman lawyers and intellectuals worked out a set of skilful legal formulas to justify and legalise the plunder of cultural goods (ius belli, monumentum imperatoris, ornamentum urbis). Cicero, Livy and Plutarch never condemn the robbery of artworks and libraries if they were committed in the name of the Roman state. The fragmentary evidence testifies to the once flourishing literary circles of the kingdoms of Pontus and Commagene (Methrodorus of Scepsis, Athenion, the anonymous authors of inscriptions from Commagene, the epitaphs of the Bosporan kingdom).

In 2011, a monograph long anticipated by art historians with an expertise in Old Russian and Byzantine art was published by Ljudmila Pekarska. The main subject of the monograph – the history of a hoard of jewellery found in Kiev in 1906, and as luck would have it is today divided between the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author, however, did not limit her study to the analysis of objects from this hoard. She used an extensive amount of comparative materials from collections in many Western, Ukrainian, and Russian museums. L. Pekarska focuses mainly on the cloisonné enamels, an impressive example of exquisite medieval luxury. Welcoming
the publication of this book, and being interested in the research, as well as its author, I do not envy the hard work that it would take for a person to write a scholarly review on this publication. The book contains so many specific features, so many politicized statements, so many altered facts that an unprepared reader, and even a professional, will not always be able to understand these “sleights of hand”. For this reason, I chose only three pages from the book of Ljudmila Pekarska that discuss a collection of cloisonné enamels of Alexandr Zvenigorodsky and its fate
(now almost the entire collection is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). I hope that my article will help the reader in understanding the nuances of L. Pekarska’s book and, besides that, off ers the reader more detailed information about the unique collection of Zvenigorodsky and the reasons it is now in Western museums. In this article, the author includes biographical facts about Alexander Zvenigorodsky; it shines a light on the history of Zvenigorodsky’s ownership of the cloisonné enamels, and criminal origin of the collection taken from Georgian monasteries.
Also included is information on the publication of the collection by its owner – the famous book issued in three languages
in 200 copies each: in Russian, in German, and in French. The book has long since become a rare example of the highest quality of printing and refi ned luxury. A considerable attention is paid to the fate of the collection after the death of its owner; the reason it was secretly sold to John Pierpont Morgan; a negative role in this sale of the infamous collector Michail Botkin. A seemingly private matter about Zvenigorodsky’s collection of enamels has raised numerous problems of ethical, methodological, and, in some degree, even cultural and political nature.

Chalil Raad (Khalil Ra'd) was one of the most important Arab photographers in the Middle East, beginning in the late nineteenth century, and one of the first – if not the first – active in Palestine. Though born in Lebanon, Raad lived in Palestine for seven decades, was professionally active, mainly in it, for six, and created a significant and impressive oeuvre. He photographed the everyday life of the locals, mainly indigenous Palestinian urban and rural landscapes, social/family scenes, and portraits in the studio or in the public sphere, in a staged, semi-staged or documentary manner, for commercial andother purposes. He was also active in military and ethnographic photography and was apparently the first Arab and local archaeological photographer in Palestine. Simultaneously, he travelled around the Middle East, giving expression to Arab life in a period of reorganisation and reform, the Tanzimat (the massive restructuring of the Ottoman Empire) and al-Nahda (awakening or renaissance), reflecting ‘the afterimage of modernity.
From the nineteenth century onwards, the Palestinian presence in the region was concealed or misrepresented by colonialist representations and ‘seizure of narratives’, a process of elimination from Westerner’s and Zionist’s consciousness. Furthermore, since 1930s, and especially since the Nakba (1948), Palestinian archives and material were seized or looted by Jewish and Israeli forces and individuals and deleted from the public sphere by the Israeli colonial regime of knowledge by additional means. Other resources were lost or damaged and subsequent wars between Israel and Arab states and the Palestinians. While Palestinians are still fighting to regain their missing archivesand collect fragments from their past, fighting against ‘archival absence’ (evidence or materials)18 and write their ‘history without documents’, Raad’s archive reveals the very destructiveness of colonialism. At the same time, it enables us to shed light on ‘archival imaginaries … archives both shadow and real, and conditions both intellectual and material’.

Introduction
1. A Slice of Material History
1.1. The religious act of the foundation of Pella-on-the-Orontes
1.2. The (re)foundation of Apamea – the royal generosity of Seleucus and Apama
1.3. Apamea: prosperity and joy of suburban life
2. The mosaic as a new historical source for the history of Apamea
Conclusions
Beyond the devastation and tragedy of human lives precipitated by the conflict in Syria, priceless representations of ancient culture and history have likewise fallen victim to a seemingly never-ending maelstrom of destruction. Ancient monuments and art have either been destroyed, damaged, or lost as chaos persists in a region that has for thousands of years seen the footprint of a parade of civilizations. (...)
The scenes tell the story of the founding of Pella/Apamea and further development of this city on the Orontes river. Three main groups of scenes can be distinguished: (1) the foundation of Pella-on-the-Orontes by the legendary Archippos, (2) the (re)foundation of the city as Apamea-on-the-Orontes (earlier Pella-on-the-Orontes) by Seleucus I Nikator and the simultaneous financial generosity of his wife, Apama, for the development of the new Seleucid colony in 300 BC, and (3) the raising of the town fortifications around monumental public buildings and an illustration of the daily life of a joyous people living in the rich Apamean agglomeration and hinterland. Features of style date the panels to the 4th century AD.

Ancient coins are among the most widely collected and demanded objects among American collectors of antiquities. A vocal lobby of ancient coin dealers/collectors has arisen to protect the importation of undocumented material into the United States and also seeks to make a distinction between antiquities trafficking and that in ancient coins. Coins are an equally important historical source and are no less important 'antiquities' than a Greek painted vase. I examine the scale of the trade in ancient coins in North America and address some points made by proponents of a continued unfettered ancient coin trade.