[CPProt.net] Art market scandal: British Museum expert highlights growing problem of fake antiquities

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

Art market scandal: British Museum expert highlights growing problem of fake
antiquities
By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent
24 May 2005


Most of the antiquities on sale in Britain are either stolen or fakes, a
leading museum scientist has told a national conference on art crime. 

Paul Craddock, a scientist at the British Museum whose work involves
checking the authenticity of artefacts, said international legislation had
so far "proved toothless" at fighting the burgeoning problem. 

"The amount of legitimate material on the market is very, very small," Dr
Craddock said. "Most antiquities on the market nowadays are either stolen or
forgeries." 

The claim ­ at a conference in London organised by the Fraud Advisory Panel
­ could prove highly damaging to the lucrative London market. 

The British art market is believed to be worth more than £500m a year and in
2000 the Metropolitan Police alone seized £22m worth of stolen or faked
antiquities. 

Looting ­ a problem dating back centuries ­ is also a modern phenomenon, as
demonstrated by the widespread theft of artefacts after the invasion of Iraq
two years ago. 

Dr Craddock's comments prompted protests from some of the dozens of
delegates. Ros Wright, chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel, established by
the Institute of Chartered Accountants, said: "I'm sure that nobody does
take away the impression that all art on the market is suspect." 

Art and auction houses in London have spent several years tightening
security and the Cultural Objects Offences Act of 2003 made it illegal to
trade in goods thought to be tainted. Auction houses are as liable as banks
for making sure that they are not being used to launder suspect money and
figures from the Art Loss Register, the London-based company with a database
of 160,000 stolen items, suggest the number of stolen works being sold at
auction has fallen. 

But Dr Craddock insisted the scale of the problem was such that he would
want clear evidence of an object's history before he bought anything
himself. 

He cited the example of an unnamed American heiress who amassed a sizeable
collection of Middle Eastern jewellery in just two years. When it was taken
to a museum, most of it was shown to be fake. 

One of the most famous fakes acquired by the British Museum was the Crystal
Skull, supposedly an Aztec symbol of death, bought in 1897. Recent analysis
showed it was cut and polished with a type of rotating wheel used in 19th
century Europe. 

Alexandra Smith, of the Art Loss Register, said the scale of looting was
shrouded in mystery. "It is terribly difficult to tell how many works of art
are stolen because a lot of people never report the theft," she said. "One
museum abroad was recently reported to have lost 300 paintings, but failed
to tell anyone because they were so embarrassed."