[CPProt.net] Israel-USA: Stolen rare artifact recovered in mail

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Stolen rare artifact recovered in mail

Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST  May. 17, 2005 

A rare archaeological artifact dating back nearly two thousand years which
was stolen from an archaeological site in Israel has been intercepted in the
mail en route to the US, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday. 

The 5-7 cm lead weight,[mishkolet oferet] dating back to the second century
Bar Kochba Revolt, was hidden inside a book sent by airmail. 

The unusual package was sent by a former Israeli antiquities dealer to a
prominent American antiquities dealer in New York, the head of the
Antiquities Authority's anti-theft division Amir Ganor said. 

He declined to name of either of the parties involved, citing pending legal
action. 

The antiquities theft was uncovered after Israel's postal authority x-rayed
the package being sent in the mail, and alerted the antiquities authority. 

Ganor said that it was not immediately clear where the ancient weight came
from -- one of only four such known wights in Israel -- but that it was
likely plundered from a site in the Greater Jerusalem area. 

After the artifact was uncovered earlier this month, officials from Israel's
top archaeological body raided the Jerusalem home of the sender, and found
incriminating evidence against the former Israeli antiquities dealer, Ganor
said. 

The dealer faces criminal charges, and if convicted could face up to two
years in jail for attempting to sneak antiquities out of the country, he
said. 

Israel's Antiquities Authority will ask American law enforcement officials
for permission to question the American antiquities dealer involved in the
case, which was the first time archaeological theft has been uncovered in
the mail. 

About 300 archeology thefts are detected each year in Israel, with the
illicit antiquities trade on the black market in the country estimated to be
running in the millions of dollars a year. 

Despite the overall drop in violence in Israel, the number of antiquities
theft has risen more than 50 percent in the last year alone. 

In 2004 there were 314 reported cases of antiquities theft, compared to less
than 200 in 2003. The phenomenon of antiquities theft has taken on gold rush
dimensions, with an antiquities site now plundered every day on average.