Archives for March 2011

With the resignation of Zahi Hawass, which I broke the news of here this morning, a lot of dirt is going to come out — I am hearing many more rumblings about theft by him and professors at the American University of Cairo. [Allegations against the latter are contradicted in two comments below.] I can not attempt to confirm them, given my day job, but await reports from those closer to the situation.

In the meantime, I have obtained a new list of missing items from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It comes from inside the museum, and passed to me through a short chain of reliable sources. I can not confirm it, but given the details, it seems credible enough to post here with those caveats. So, what follows is word for word from the source, including the spellings:

Here is a short description of the missing pieces (this is not yet announced officially).

A. Collection of Tutankhamun
      1. Trumpet

     2.  The two fans

B. From Yuya and Tuya collection
      1. The collection had 11 Ushaptis, 7 are missing, and 4 are still there. These 11 Ushaptis are registered as one unit. These lie in the Upper Floor Gallery 43, display cabinet # 13

C. Also in the Upper Floor Gallery 43 the display cabinet of the turquoise Hipo, everything disappeared except the turquoise Hipo.

D. Late Period, Upper floor room 12: 17 Ushapti figures are missing

E. Pantheons, Upper Floor, room 14
      1. Two drawers with their figures of Pantheons are missing
      2. Two cabinets one in the middle of the room and one on the side have been violated with many pieces missing.

      It is estimated that from this room only hundreds of pieces are missing, as you probably know these are small figures of gods and pantheons.

F. Department of Akhenaten, Ground Floor room 3 and gallery 13
      1. Thot and the scribe (This is a very famous statue, 6.8 cm high)
      2. Bust of Nefertity (7 cm high)
      3. Bust of Tuya mother of Nefertity.

An unconfirmed report from Egypt, in Arabic, says that Zahi Hawass has resigned. Can anyone translate? Link here. It comes from an Egyptologist in Germany who speaks Arabic. (Rough translation is here.)

Reports in English say the government has resigned, including Hawass, and that he said he “will not return to his position as minister even in the new government.”

Bloomberg reports that the Prime Minister has resigned.

UPDATE: The New York Times has now confirmed his resignation:

Reached by telephone, Mr. Hawass said he was happy that he had made the “right decision” in resigning and lashed out at colleagues who have criticized him, including one who has accused him of smuggling antiquities.

A good summary of why in my previous post.

More as I learn more.

 

 

The news from Egypt continues to be dire. Earlier this week, we heard that storage rooms at the Giza pyramids were raided, and yesterday came more reports that pieces are being destroyed. What isn’t smashed is going…who knows where? But if they are collectable, knowledgeable authorities have suggested that artifacts will find their way into collections in places like Kuwait, Japan, China and Russia.

See below for more on what’s happening in “the trade.”

But first, a good source on the damage, Talking Pyramids, reported yesterday:

…looting continues in the pyramid fields with the raiding of storage warehouses south of Giza early yesterday morning.

Six guards and a policeman at the warehouses were bound and gagged by about 60 thieves who broke into the Selim Hassan artifact storehouse, which housed the reports of Dr. Selim Hassan’s excavations from years 1929 till 1968.

No wonder Minister of Antiquities Zawi Hawass is threatening to quit, though many doubt his candor. Not only has he been ineffective at protecting museums and sites, he has also been accused of corruption, which he denies.

Today, Hawass blogged about ongoing looting. He admitted that among the storage sites attacked was the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s excavation storeroom at Dahshur, which has been raided twice — “looters were able to overpower and tie up the guards.” Other sites he mention are Qantara East, in the Sinai; Saqqara, where padlocked tombs were opened; Abusir, a Czech expedition; Giza, and Tell el-Basta and Wadi el-Feiran, near Sharm el-Sheikh:

Site inspectors at each of these locations are still carefully checking the magazine inventories against their databases to assess the full extent of the damage. I am waiting for the inspectors to finish their work and file their final reports with me.

That was just the storehouses. Hawass also cites damage at pyramid sites and Islamic monuments. The above picture shows damage to a Ramses statue at Aswan.

The accuracy of Hawass’s statements, given his past track record, can not be affirmed.

There’s not much people in the west can do about this. UNESCO, the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and dozens of organizations have called on Egyptian authorities to take action. Deutsche Well offers this view of the situation.

One name was noticeably missing from recent reports, but not for lack of trying to help. Yesterday I emailed Christopher A. Marinello, Executive Director & General Counsel, of The Art Loss Register, which registers and helps track and restore ownership of stolen art, to find out his view of what could be done.

Here’s what he wrote back:

I offered my assistance to Mr. Hawass within a day of the first events in Egypt. He did not respond. I wrote again after the first reports of theft….again, no response. We now know ZH is fighting for his own job at the moment.

The ALR has been made aware of a number of items that have gone missing and is actively investigating. We are working closely with law enforcement and various international Customs agents who are on high alert for this material.

We have also been contacted by many noteworthy names in the trade who are very concerned that these items do not go through their establishments. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have no qualms about purchasing these items.

The trade needs to be more vigilant. What we really need is for the institutions in Egypt that are suffering these losses to contact us and get them listed on the database immediately. We have agreed to waive all registration fees for museums in Egypt and cannot simply rely on the old order to keep watch and aggressively pursue Egypt’s cultural heritage while this situation unfolds.

Margaret Maitland has pictures and updates on the looted pieces, as ever.

See my more recent post, here, with a new inventory of items missing from the Cairo Museum.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Zahi Hawass

 

It’s bad form to look a gift horse in the mouth, but that maxim came to mind when I learned that Carlos Slim’s Soumaya Museum of Art in Mexico City “opened” yesterday.

Slim, either the richest person in the world or close, depending on various market gyrations, has been building a new museum for his collection, which spans the 15th century through the 20th and is said to include 66,000 works. The museum is called Soumaya after his late wife, who died in 1999. The six-story building was designed by his son-in-law Fernando Romero, and includes a 350-seat auditorium, a library, a cafeteria, and a lounge along with galleries. Slim’s collection will be shown on a rotating basis.

According to the Associated Press (via NPR):

Inside, the Soumaya features 183,000 square feet (17,000 square meters) of exhibition space encompassing six halls.

One hall will house Slim’s collection of coins, bills, gold and silver, for the first time on display to the public. The others will showcase his collection of portraits, fashion and furniture; works by European masters such as da Vinci and El Greco; as well as 19th- and 20th-century paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Toulouse Lautrec and Van Gogh.

Other reports, including those by Reuters and AFP, say the initial display includes a large selection of Rodin sculptures and paintings by Diego Rivera and Rufino Tayamo. 

Not known in general philanthropist, considering his wealth of more than $50 billion, Slim in this case has given a gifts to his fellow citizens — and the world. Admission will be free.

Slim will also maintain his previous Soumaya museum, a smaller affair in a different part of town.

This is all great, and I thank him. I wish Slim had not spoiled it a tad with his opening on Tuesday, a glitzy affair hosted by Larry King for 1,500 guests including Mexico’s president to Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.   

The rest of us don’t get to see it until March 29. Reuters also said that:

Slim plans to build a huge development anchored by the museum that will include offices, apartments and shops with a price tag of $750 million for the first phase of construction.

That makes it seem a bit more like a business decision than a generous gift; earlier reports placed the cost of the museum at $34 million (pretty slim, no?). But then again the museum was supposed to have opened last year, and the delay may have meant an escalation in costs.

But I quibble, and I shouldn’t. I am eager to see the collection and the building myself, or at least to hear what the critics have to say.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AP (bottom)

In recent days, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s have reported on their 2010s, and both are pretty much jumping for joy — which, of course, is not thrilling news for art museums.

Let’s look at a few numbers. In 2010:

• Total sales by both, including dealer and private-treaty sales, equaled $9.8 billion.
• Christie’s total ($5 billion, up 53%) was its highest ever, and Sotheby’s ($4.8 billion, up 74%) was exceeded in 2007.
• Sotheby’s sold 609 lots for more than $1 million, and Christie’s sold 606 for more than $1 million. I tried to find out how many U.S. homes sold for more than $1 million, but could not find the statistic. But, just for context — not direct comparison — the average price for an existing home sold in the U.S. last year was $173,100, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Those are all worldwide statistics, but Christie’s breaks out the totals by region, and the U.S. leads, followed by Europe.

Both houses report that Impressionist and Modern sales were highest, followed by contemporary art.

The Klimt at right fetched $27.9 million last June at Christie’s.

Without citing statistics here — they exist — it’s clear that income distribution in the U.S. is growing more uneven, with more money going into the pockets of the wealthy, many of whom become art collectors. Paddle registration by newcomers, according to Christie’s, rose 22.7% last year.

U.S. museums — collections of private collections, by and large — are going to become even more dependent on them. There will be more comments/criticisms about too-cozy relationships and questions about why some decisions are made (displaying collections, accepting art donations, etc.).

The best response to all of this is as much transparency as possible. Collectors will try to keep things private, but sometimes museum directors will have to gingerly convince them otherwise.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Christie’s