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>From: "Bert Gedin" <gedinbert@hotmail.com> >To: dirk.adriaensens@skynet.be >CC: gedinbert@hotmail.com >Subject: Re: [casi] Cultural Rape and Smashing Pumpkins >Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 19:51:27 +0000 > > >Dear Dirk & List, > >Your friend's letter makes fascinating observations on the weird behaviour >of museum plunderers. Motivations may vary, with the individual thiefs >involved. Goering, "art lover" supreme, comes to mind. >In the Crimean war, the town of Kertch was raided, by marauding armies, in >1855. Here a comtempory account: "..A large museum, full of antiquities, >connected with early Greek times, was ruthlessly despoiled, and its >contents scattered and broken;..." In Baghdad, much of the thefts seems >like kleptomania - many of the stolen items would be of no use whatsoever, >to their new "owners". That, however, would be of little consolation to the >robbed victims. > >Greetings, >Bert Gedin. > >om: "Dirk Adriaensens" <dirk.adriaensens@skynet.be> >>To: <soc-casi-discuss@lists.cam.ac.uk> >>Subject: [casi] Cultural Rape and Smashing Pumpkins >>Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 18:35:09 +0200 >> >> >>[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] >> >>Dear list, >>I received a reaction of someone in the art-sector that I happen to know. >>What he writes about the looting of the archeological museum in baghdad is >>quite interesting. >>Hope this information is helpful. >>Groeten. >>Dirk. >> >>On the Bagdad Museum, >> >> I have great suspicions about this. People representing the museum >>had visited Washington recently ( it was reported) as they were very >>concerned about the museum. They were given assurance at some high level >>that the museum would not be bombed and would be protected. >> >> During W.W.II this was a practice followed by the American military >>who had special units of people who were actually fine art historians, >>always officers and a squad of troops. Except in the Civil War nothing >>like this has ever happened before in Am. military history. I am positive >>that commanders are trained in this very standard procedure. >> >> There has already been some official on CNN who has implied that they >>suspected the artifacts were on their way to Israel. My having been >>around the art world for 40 years and having to always be aware of >>transactions of stolen art there are some things I know. ( I also attended >>a very expensive seminar on Art Law which dealt with stolen art) >> >> The collection of ancient artifacts is an extremely specialized >>area and one of very wealthy collectors. Sometimes things are stolen and >>are just held in very private locked rooms of these collectors. This type >>of collector who will pay any amount of money for a prestige of knowing >>they now own it. They are really very kinky people. >> >> Many of them and there are probably fewer then 50 in the world, >>like to remain anonymous. My former asst. went to work for an ancient art >>collector and her very well paid job was to bid for items of ancient art >>at Sotheby's and the now defunct Parke-Bernet in NYC. I was always amazed >>how well paid she was. At any given time there is but a small amount of >>legally acquired ancient art in the public market. There is a great demand >>by these 50 wealthy collectors to aquire even legal items. This is >>because items held by the museum in Bagdad would never ever be expected to >>reach the art markets. >> >>There are two possibilities,maybe another I havent thought of. This is >>what I think happened. >> 1. It was a major screw-up by our military ,which is a distinct >>possibility.If it was, it was the first since the Civil War. >> The way an art thief would plan is as follows. >> >> 2. Someone made a deal with those that plan the war. Paul >>Wolfowitz , Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld are the planners, The first >>two are both >>Jews who have close contacts in Israel. >> >> 3. Very wealthy Israeli/Arab collectors formed a syndicate and >>paid Wolfowitz and/or Perle to ignore a precedent of military history >>which was to >>protect the cultural artifacts of Bagdad. This was the finest collection >>of Mesopotanian artefacts in the world. >> >> 4. I think that much of the stuff went out in trucks . After the >>rare and prized pieces were removed, a previously hired Iraqi (thug) >>working in >>conjunction for the synidicate lead a groups of looters much as a college >>kid leads a panty raid. >> >> They began with trashing the statues and pottery which the thieves >>have left behind and a chaos of piles of broken pottery on the floors. How >>can anyone know what was smashed and what is just missing ? >> >> One museum display case that held ancient gold jewelry was broken >>and its contents stripped. Who would know what happened to it. >> >> Anyway that's what I think happened. I am also sure that we will >>hear much more about this. >> >> Mel >> >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. >>To unsubscribe, visit >>http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss >>To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk >>All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > _________________________________________________________________ Overloaded with spam? With MSN 8, you can filter it out http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=32&DI=1059 _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk