[CPProt.net] Former art smuggling kingpin Michel van Rijn is less than impressed with police forces' efforts to crack down on the black market for Iraqi antiquities.

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Sunday, 18 December, 2005
The insider
by Richard Agnew (richard.agnew at itp.com) 
Former art smuggling kingpin Michel van Rijn is less than impressed with
police forces' efforts to crack down on the black market for Iraqi
antiquities.

Michel Van Rijn is well versed in the dark arts of antiquity trading, as
well as the riches that can be made from them. Claimed by some to have once
been responsible for 90% of international art smuggling, the Dutchman admits
to having made millions from less than legal activities - and to having lost
millions as well. 

But now he is helping to catch those involved in the trade, rather than
profit from it, Van Rijn is concerned at the stuttering progress authorities
have made in retrieving Iraq's treasures. "They are looking in the wrong
direction," he says, cooking breakfast for his family in his London home. 

"They have no idea of reality. They are up against very well organised
looters with outlets in Switzerland, the US, France and England. So they
need people who know the mechanics of the black market and how to fight it.
They need people to whisper in their ear and tell them where to look."

This is the very service van Rijn has claimed he used to provide to UK
police forces, to gain protection for his own business. In his book, Hot Art
Cold Cash, he confesses spiriting icons out of various countries before
selling them on - but also says Scotland Yard used to turn a blind eye to
his deals, in return for information. 

Now, however, he's working to expose museums and dealers who purchase items
illegally, and is unimpressed with the lack of arrests authorities have
made. "Have you heard of Interpol seizing any piece from Iraq? No, neither
have I. They have the occasional person who grasses but they are lost. And
it's clear they are lost because there are no records of big seizures."

Joseph Braude - the Iraqi economic analyst who famously got rumbled at US
customs two years ago with some less-than-priceless seals in his luggage -
is about the highest profile arrest since the looting began, shortly after
the coalition's invasion in 2003. 

The trouble, van Rijn says, is he's about as far up the food chain
investigators have got. "The Braude seals were probably worth a couple of
thousand dollars altogether," he says. "But there is at least one collector
in New York who has organised a complete system of looting archaeological
sites in Iraq. He has thousands of pieces in his collection. If you compare
the Braude seals against everything that's been taken from Iraq, it becomes
a comedy."

Nor is the former smuggling kingpin impressed with Braude himself. "At least
steal a piece with balls. Don't come out of Iraq with some **** seals which
you stumble over by accident. I would be ashamed if I got caught with a
couple of pieces like that."

Judging by the amount of dealers making a killing from looted items in the
capitals of Europe and the US, the Dutchman believes that authorities should
make a show of targeting the industry's big players. "They could seize
material in the galleries and really demonstrate that they are willing to go
the extra mile, not wait at the border to see if something falls in their
lap. They should go and hunt the corporates - they aren't now." 

The huge number of archaeological sites in Iraq, and the poor state of
archaeological records, has also made it much easier for dealers to sell
stolen artefacts, van Rijn says. "I know how their provenance machine works.
Ninety percent of antiquities looted are recycled with credible provenance
because there is no system that takes this provenance apart - you run it by
the Art Loss Register and that's it. If the records are destroyed noone
knows they ever existed, so you have done your due diligence and you are
free to sell it. And that's what's not being targeted. The records were
completely lost and destroyed so whatever was there as a record is gone." 

Most of the items that are stolen are smuggled through Iran into the UAE,
and onto the West, van Rijn says: "If you look at what is out there in
London, in the Mayfair triangle where the major galleries are, you would
cry. It's very sad, because these historical pieces are lost - they are
taken out of circulation in a country where they make the puzzle complete,
and are instead put in a showcase in Madison Avenue or Mayfair. 

"There is an ocean of looted material coming from Iraq on a daily basis into
the black market in London. This is the central point from where it is sold
on."

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