Cindy Ho was concerned in 2003 when the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad was looted after the U.S. entered Iraq.
“Antiquities from any country, no matter what, are cultural heritage that is vital,” the Jersey City resident said last week, “in that it preserves a history of the world that can’t be replaced. It’s like everyone’s grandmother.”
Ho, a former graphic designer and advertising art director, has lived with her husband in the Newport area of Jersey City since October 2002 after moving from Manhattan. In 2003, she created the organization Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE).
Working from her apartment, Ho runs full-time a volunteer organization devoted to educating the public about the adverse impact of the looting, smuggling, and trading of illicit antiquities. She says that there are stolen antiques on display on famous museums.
SAFE has teamed with academics and aficionados of ancient artifacts to uncover a situation that gets very little media attention.
“This can be a complex subject that people don’t see how it affects their lives,” said Ho. “But one would be surprised at how a number of reputable museums are carrying stolen items, or how the stolen antiquities trade is considered the third most lucrative illegal business in the world behind drugs and weapons.”Lucrative but illegal
In 2003, there were news reports that as many as 170,000 artifacts had been stolen from Iraq’s National Museum. But in an investigation by U.S. Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, which he later detailed in his recent book, “Thieves of Baghdad,” Bogdanos found that between professional thieves, looters, and those with an inside knowledge of the museum, over 13,000 museum pieces (including vases and jewelry dating back to before Christ) had been taken. Bogdanos and his small team have recovered approximately 95 percent of the looted artifacts.
But Ho also found that in Iraq, there continues a present day looting of archeological sites, with entire ancient cities vanishing.
She also discovered that a number of countries have been stripped dry of historic artifacts.
“I have learned that Costa Rica and Thailand have little if any of their cultural artifacts, which is a tragedy because you can’t replace that,” said Ho.
Ho said such crimes are profitable. The FBI Art Theft Program estimates the trafficking of works of art and national treasures is valued at up to $8 billion a year.
Ho said, “So I could see how some poor villagers, who would only get a few dollars for more than a day’s work, will go out of their way to steal precious artifacts.” In Museums
Ho said that even famous museums have stolen art on display.
“I have been to a number of meetings,” she said, “and I hear the stories of how museums pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, for stolen artifacts.”
She added, “People do not realize that these world-famous institutions have these stolen items on display for years and for most part have not disclosed that information. SAFE was formed to let the public know the dubious means that a vase or piece of jewelry or statue ended up in a museum’s collection.”
In 1970, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) adopted a mandate prohibiting the importing of stolen cultural property. It requires countries to monitor the antiquities trade within their own borders. Show us the stolen items
SAFE has organized tours for the public of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, conducted by experts in the antiquities field, where they point out the items on display that may have had a shady path to the museum.
On their website, (www.savingantiquities.org), the organization also posts writings and links to articles that detail activities around the world pertaining to the theft or recovery of stolen antiquities as well as the strengthening of existing laws in the world.
Ho has written on illicit antiquity issues, most recently a March 12, 2006 piece in the US Italia Weekly, taking to task the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s statements in the New York Times, which she believes trivialized the efforts by various countries to retrieve what was looted within their borders.
The museum signed an agreement in February with the Italian Ministry of Culture to return a number of items on display, including the Euphronios Krater, an ancient Greek vase dating back to the 6th century B.C. that has been in the museum’s collection since 1972. It was considered a showpiece of the museum’s Greek and Roman collections.
More importantly, Ho and other members of SAFE have spoken in front of Congress on the issue of stolen antiquities.
“Most times, experts and others involved in the field are usually the ones who speak at these hearings, but there are hardly any members of the public who speak out on this subject,” said Ho. “That’s one of the major reasons that the subject of stolen antiquities is many times is obscured from the public.”
Ho said SAFE has won many friends and admirers in the antiquities field, but not surprisingly has been seen as a “threat” by the collectors and dealers.
SAFE plans to continue distributing and screening “Network,” a documentary about the illicit trade of Greek antiquities. Ho also said that she is looking for a space in Jersey City to screen “Network.” Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.