This short report about the desecration of Libya's archaeological heritage is
prepared by Temehu.com to provide an introduction to the subject of archaeological
plunder, heists and vandalism in Libya from the 17th century to the present.
To help improve this incomplete report and compile a preliminary list of antiquities
hoarded out of the country, Temehu.com
invites all Libyans to assist with whatever information relating
to this badly neglected and yet the most important aspect of Libya's rare archaeological
heritage. Please forward your contribution to info at temehu dot com.
The destruction of archaeological heritage in ancient times
was often motivated by the clash of civilisations, justifiably bringing to ruin
so many ancient archaeological marvels under the pretext of cultural rivalry.
Today's tolerance and awareness of the true value of human history can only regret
the misfortunes illuminating the pages of history. The ancient and modern
wars on
the Berber, Egyptian and Sumerian civilisations, without a doubt, had dispersed
most of their archaeological heritage, as much as they had reduced many of
their remaining parts to cumulus rubble. This may explain why so
many of the statues and idols you see today in Libya's and Egypt's museums had
their noses broken, their ears knocked off, defaced, limbless, headless, cracked,
bruised and all the other signs of violent conflict their masters came to endure
from the mortals they so hard protected to come about as offspring.
Needless to say, political or any
other desecration of archaeological sites today is outlawed
and classified under the acts of terrorism, as in the case of the recent
destruction of Buddhist statues and sacred temples; and therefore
one dares not, any more, call for the destruction of such heritage in the open.
But behind closed doors greed still plays the role it had always played in human
history, as was the fate of so many looted tombs from around the world. The pyramids
of the Berber Garamantian
civilisation in Fezzan were robbed long before archaeologists
got to them to unravel some of their desert mysteries. Yet, our ancestors were
well aware of the nature of the beast they hoped to evade as some
of the Garamantian pyramids escaped looting because the sacred treasures
were deceptively buried outside the tombs. The Ancient Egyptians, too, knew
about tomb raiders and mummy traders from the future, as they went to great lengths
to hide their tombs in the valley of the kings and beneath the desert's sand.
Many of these sites are now being discovered by satellites in the sky, and it
is only a matter of time before they too will come in contact with air! The most
difficult to locate however are those hidden deep amongst & beneath
the endless ridges of the mountain chains, which may well succeed in achieving
their hoped-for destiny -- never to breathe the air of the living again.
We have no good reason today to assume the practice of looting
the sacred heritage of the ancestors ever ceased to exist, if it has not become
an art of autocratic crime -- something modern war-politicians apparently call: "freedom
is untidy". Untidy as it might seem, but the job is always "well
done". It is almost certain that wars and archaeological robberies
do go "hand in hand" as documented throughout ancient and modern history. Wars
create political vacuums of grey areas that easily lend themselves to exploitation
by white-collar dealers and the gurus of the black market. Take
for example the disastrous looting of Libya's and Egypt's treasures during the
World Wars -- way beyond imagination; the ransacking of the pagan Sumerian
and Babylonian heritage during the Iraq war; the looting of the Berber Sahara
by many European explorers and colonial tomb raiders;
and, of course, one of the largest
thefts of archaeological material in history that took place in Benghazi, Libya,
during the early months of the February 2011 war, while the city was awash with
NTC forces, SAS and Special forces.
17th, 18th & 19th Century Plunder of Libyan Antiquities:
The following section contains records and names of persons
and organisations reportedly involved in the procurement and shipping of Libyan
antiquities, and therefore Temehu.com shall not be held responsible for any of
the information found in the report nor for any inaccuracies therein. The following
section is based on a report by
Professor Khaled Muhammed Alhadar (followed up
by Tareq Assanousi and Saleh Atawati), a member of the teaching board at Gar
Yunes University, in Benghazi, Libya. The report was presented at
Assaray Alhamra Museum in Tripoli (23/12/2009), and was said to detail 14 years
of research into the subject. To read the summary of the report in Arabic please
follow this url: http://khaledelhaddar.maktoobblog.com/
According to this report,
stolen and procured Libyan archaeological treasures are found in 50 museums from
around the world including in Egypt, Lebanon, Malta, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain,
France, Britain, Scotland, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Canada and America.
The professor presented a document showing a pact made by the governor of Tripoli
and the French government in 1692, which allowed the French to transport marble
columns from Leptis Magna to France, to be used for building royal castles.
Similarly, Yousef Pasha sent 40 columns from Leptis Magna to Windsor Castle as
a mere gesture of generosity. Forty columns were also sent to Malta. A few years
later, another pact was granted to Turkey to furnish its empty museum in Istanbul
with Libyan antiquities including 13 rock engravings that
were hacked-off the wall of the Ghirza temples -- the pre-Roman Berber settlement
in the pre-desert. Consular staff too were reportedly implicated in the
business, as they funded explorers and grave-diggers to hunt for rare items;
leading some to believe the implied reason for creating embassies in the first
place. The British consulate was said to have transported 140 archaeological
artifacts from Benghazi and Tokra alone, and 30 chests (or boxes) laden with
archaeological treasures from Tripoli were sent to the British Museum in London.
The English consul "George
Dennis"
and vice-consul "Wood" were mentioned in the report. But the biggest
archaeological heist of the time was the theft of 380 archaeological pieces in
1847, sent by Deputy Consul "De Borvil", to the French Library,
before they ended up in the Louvre Museum. The artifacts included 32 Leptis
columns, pottery pieces, statues, engravings (including one of the Berber Princess
Bernice), and
even wall frescoes that were hacked off with saws, just like modern travellers
recently did cut cave paintings off the rocks of the Sahara (as reported
by Henri Lhote and others). While the English reportedly preferred
to finance excavation assignments, Dutch consular staff however were
digging the graves with their own hands, as in the case of Dutch Consul "Van
Burghel" who
dug some graves in Cyrene in 1830, and helped himself to some decorated
burial pottery, now displayed in Leiden Museum, in Amsterdam. [That
was the summary of the report. More extracts are listed in the first list below.]
The fascination with North African marble goes back to Roman
times, when the Romans transported massive amounts of marble columns and slabs
from Carthage -- then the most advanced city around the entire Mediterranean
sea - the city the Romans grew to be jealous of, with many of its gigantic
buildings built entirely of marble and polished floors. After the Romans' destruction
of the (then archaeological) rival North African capital, the marble rubble supplied
Europe with the best quality marble there was. The reconstructed Mausoleum of
Bes in Sabratha's archaeological site is now taking the place of the original
dismantled by the Byzantines who used its blocks to build a wall in the 6th century;
while their modern descendents, the Italians of the early 20th century, openly
continued the exportation of marble columns and pieces from Sabratha and Leptis
Magna, in total disregard to the sovereignty of the country they came to harvest,
and even were said to have used archaeological stones to build civil roads to
facilitate the transportation of both troops and goods. Mr. Kamal Shtewi, the
manager of Assaraya Alhamra Museum in the capital Tripoli in 2006, told the BBC
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4951770.stm), that most of the items
looted recently from museums and excavation sites were looted by
"organised gangs", and that among the items
taken were those uncovered during seismic surveys in the desert by "oil
companies".
He confirmed 90 items were stolen since 1988, but he says the true figure could
be much higher since among the sites attacked were unauthorised excavations
and poorly guarded sites and museums. A good example of these unprotected sites
include the newly discovered site in Abukemmash, west
of Zuwarah, near the Tunisian border, where reportedly Moroccan and other foreign
subcontractors laboured their way through the contents of the tombs, temples
and rooms that never saw the light before.
Among the most devastating acts
of archaeological plunder, however, is the widespread practice of looting the
Sahara by some modern tourists and adventure travellers; just like many of the
early pioneers and explorers did. It is not so much the monetary
value of the artifacts looted, including prehistoric flint tools, stone
axes, arrows, fossils, stone querns and mortars, coins, shells, beads, sections
of cave paintings (hacked off with saws), and even the disastrous lifting of
thick patinas from the surface of paintings by
means of using glued canvas -- the criminals cover a canvas with sticky substance
and press it against the target painting, still covered with millennial pigments
and dust, before they pull the canvas away complete with a reversed copy, entirely
made of original patina. It is the anthropological data that is lost forever,
since scientists need to study the exact locations and the exact positions in
which they were found. Some of these visitors were recently convicted in Algeria
for smuggling prehistoric artifacts from the Algerian desert; while the Libyan
government imposed the company of guides and "Tourism
Police" to safeguard the treasures of the Libyan desert for the very
same reason, many law-abiding tourists failed to realise, and instead criticised
the Libyan government for making tourism very difficult and understandably "awkward" to
enjoy. It might be of interest to know that the government's decision was in
fact based on a request from the Libyan Archaeology Department when it urged
the General People's Congress (GPC) to introduce strict laws to
halt the widespread of archaeological theft then plighting Libya before their
eyes. Of course, it would be unfair and incomplete not to mention the fact that
Libyans too were widely reported inside Libya by Libyans to be implicated in
the collection of archaeological artifacts from the Sahara and from the various
unguarded archaeological sites strewn across Libya's vast landscape. We urge
all caring Libyans to return all items to the Archaeology Department and help
preserve Libya's rare heritage.
List of Looted & Shipped Archaeological Items Mentioned in Khaled's
Report:
1 statue of a lady from Benghazi; destiny: France, in 1695; considered
the first statute to reach Europe from Libya.
1 statue of Athena and Cupid; destiny: Istanbul, Turkey.
13 rock engravings from Ghirza Temples; destiny Istanbul, Turkey.
1 statue from Cyrene; destiny Istanbul, Turkey.
1 Corinthian Cup from Demeter's temple in Tokra; destiny: Ontario, Canada.
1 cremation jar; destiny: Vienna, Austria.
1 grave stone from Leptis Magna; destiny Istanbul, Turkey.
x number of artifacts from Ptolemais; destiny: Museum of the Oriental Institute,
Chicago, USA.
1 glass bottle from Cyrene; destiny: Boston Museum, USA.
1 statue of Minerva Nike; destiny: State Museum of Pennsylvania, USA.
1 rare statue of Venus, depicting the goddess of love squeezing her hair
plats; destiny: museum of the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
x number of ancient coins from Cyrene; destiny: Boston Museum, USA.
600 pieces dating to prehistory; destiny: Vatican Museum, Italy (during WWII).
140 unclassified pieces from Benghazi; destiny: Britain, 1856, sent by English
Consulate to the British Museum.
30 statues and/or statuettes (Krakota ?) from Benghazi; destiny:
Britain, 1856, sent by Consulate to the British Museum.
40 pots from Benghazi and Tokra, destiny: Britain, sent by Consulate
to the British Museum.
30 chests full of archaeological artifacts excavated by the English Consul
"Warrington" inside the house he lived in at the time in Tripoli;
destiny: British Museum, London, UK.
5 chests full of archaeological artifacts collected in Cyrene; destiny: Scotland,
sent by "Warrington": items include decorated pottery, statue, and
engravings.
118 statues and/or statuettes from Benghazi and Tokra,
destiny: Britain, sent by Consulate to the British Museum.
40 statuettes form Benghazi and Tokra, destiny: Britain, sent
by Consulate to the British Museum.
40 columns from Leptis Magna; destiny: Windsor Castle, England.
380 pieces from Benghazi; destiny: France; sent by Deputy Consul "De
Borvil", 1847, to the French Library, then to the Louvre Museum. These items
include:
1 statue of Princess Bernice offering sacrifices to the gods.
x paintings from the Valley Belghdeer cemetery in Cyrene (cut off the wall
with a saw).
x statues and/or statuettes of Emperor Gaius.
pottery decorated with carts.
Inscription decree of Byzantine Emperor Anastasios, inscribed
in the Ptolemais sand-stone blocks; destiny: Louvre Museum, Paris.
3 columns from Leptis Magna; destiny: France, sent by French consul in 1774.
29 columns from Leptis Magna; destiny: France, sent by French consul in 1866.
148 engravings (probably the largest number of engravings to be shipped in
one go); destiny: British Museum, collected from Cyrene by British Royal Navy "Smith" (funded
by Warrington).
10 inscriptions, destiny: British Museum, collected from Cyrene by British
Royal Navy "Smith".
1 statue of Bacchus, destiny: British Museum (BM Reg. no 617- 25, 2), from
Cyrene, by British Royal Navy "Smith".
1 statue of Apollo carrying guitar-like instrument, destiny: British
Museum, from Cyrene, by British Royal Navy "Smith".
3 statues and/or statuettes of Aphrodite, destiny: British Museum, from Cyrene,
by British Royal Navy "Smith".
x statues and/or statuettes of Roman emperors, destiny: British Museum, from
Cyrene, by British Royal Navy "Smith".
x statues and/or statuettes of citizens, destiny: British Museum, from Cyrene,
by British Royal Navy "Smith".
1 bronze head of Berber or African complexions, dating to the 4th century
BC, destiny: British Museum, taken from Cyrene by British Royal Navy "Smith".
x number of terracotta pieces and coins, destiny: Copenhagen Museum, Denmark.
x number of terracotta pieces and coins, destiny: Madrid, Spain.
x number of funerary statues from Cyrene; destiny: Crete.
x number of funerary statues from Cyrene; destiny: Greece.
x number of funerary statues from Cyrene; destiny: Malta.
collection of artifacts from the "Richard Norton" collection,
1911; destiny: Swansea Museum, UK.
25 cups (Albanthiniya cups, used as trophies for winners in the Albanthiniya Games);
destiny: Manchester Museum (England), Louvre (Paris), Berlin (Germany), New York
and Detroit, (USA), Brussels (Belgium) and Alexandria (Egypt). Libya still has
5 cups left in the country, giving a total of 30 cups. The cups are 60 centimetre
high.
x number of decorated burial pottery pieces from Cyrene; destiny: Leiden
Museum, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, excavated by Dutch Consul, "Van Burghel",
in 1830.
x = "unknown number".
List of 20th & 21st Century Looted Antiquities:
The following list of stolen items is based on various
reports of the heists and thefts
that had taken place in Libya in the 20th and the 21st centuries, including
some items from the Benghazi Treasure. It was reported that the Italian archaeologist
Serenella Ensoli, a specialist in
Libyan antiquities, is compiling a list of the items making up the Treasure of
Benghazi; apparently aided with a list returned with the treasure from Italy
after the treasure was first stolen by the Italians in 1942. The 15 stone head-sculptures
listed in the following list were published by the Archaeological Institute
of America in their site: www.archaeology.org/online/features/cyrene/. Other
sources include Libyan media, archaeological journals,
Reuters, and the BBC.
7700 items (some say 8000):
the reported content of Benghazi Treasure, including the following 6 items (coloured
red):
4484 bronze coins: Benghazi Treasure; February
War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
2433 silver coins: Benghazi Treasure;
February War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
364 gold coins: Benghazi Treasure; February
War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
306 pieces of ancient jewellery (including
necklaces, bracelets, anklets, rings, earrings, gold armbands and precious stones):
Benghazi Treasure; February War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
43 other antiquities (including statuettes and
figurines of bronze, glass and ivory, embossed heads, and a plaque depicting
a battle): Benghazi Treasure; February War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
1 statuette of Love-god Cupid: Benghazi Treasure;
February War, 2011, Cyrenaica.
15 stone sculptures stolen from Cyrene, including:
Enthroned female statuette; Mid-Late 6th c BC.
Head of a female statuette; Late Classical.
Head from a statue of a female Child; Hadrianic - Early Antonine.
Head of a female statuette; Late Classical.
Head from a statuette of Alexander
the Great; Mid - Late Hellenistic.
Head of a male statue; Early Second Century AD.
Head of a female statue; Late Trajanic - Early Hadrianic.
Head of a female statuette; Early Hellenistic.
Head of a female statue; Late second century AD.
Head of a male statue; Late First - Early Second Century AD.
Head of a female statuette; Late Hellenistic - Early Roman.
Head of a female statuette; Hellenistic.
Head of a female statuette; Late Hellenistic - Early Roman.
1 statue of Venus of Cyrene, taken by Italian troops from Cyrene during
the world wars. Returned to Libya in 2008.
1 mosaic piece, stolen from Cyrene; February War, 2011,
Cyrenaica.
3 or 4 Roman amphorae, stolen from Apollonia Museum; February War, 2011,
Cyrenaica.
1 cloak, stolen from Assaraya Alhamra Museum; February War, 2011,
Tripoli
1 rifle, used during the war against the Italians, stolen from Assaraya Alhamra
Museum, Tripoli; February War, 2011, Tripoli.
1 Roman terracotta lamp, personifying the god of wine, taken by two British
soldiers in 1950s, Benghazi. This item
has now been returned.
1 bronze prow of a Greek ship, taken by two British
soldiers during diving excursion off the coast of Benghazi, 1950s. This item
has now been returned.
1 statue of Venus of Leptis Magna; returned to Libya in 1999.
90 pieces (including pottery vessels and statues), stolen from museums and
unauthorised excavation sites since 1988 (source: Kamal Shtewi, manager of
Assaraya Alhamra Museum in 2006).
1sack full of archaeological
artifacts, Roman "with
very strong Berber influence"; February War, Tripoli, intercepted 23/8/2011;
returned on 26/11/2011 including:
17 stone
heads, said to have been detached from full statues
2 terracotta
fragments
1 tile (painted with an image of what looked like a dog)
1 female figurine (thought to represent fertility)
1942: Theft of The Benghazi Treasure:
Not many really knew anything about the Benghazi Treasure
until it became headlines in October 2011, after it was stolen for the second
time. It was then and now known only to a very few! The Benghazi Treasure was
shipped to Italy in 1942 or 1943, during the Italian and allied wars in Libya.
The priceless chests eventually ended up in Val Brenta, in the Dolomites, in
May 1944. Seventeen years later the same treasure was said to have been returned
to Libya, but there is no way anyone can confirm the same contents were actually
returned. The treasure was apparently returned with a list, compiled in Italy,
of course, of the items returned but had no photos. (See below for the second
theft of the same treasure.)
According to Archaeology.org (30th of January 2001), "at
least 15 stone heads have been stolen from the storerooms of the former University
of Pennsylvania Expedition to Cyrene." The sculptures were apparently
excavated by the University Museum from the temples of the goddesses Demeter
and Persephone between 1969 and 1981; and were stolen either in late 1999 or
early in 2000. Archaeology.org said in its website that the sculptures
were described in an article published by Libya Antiqua 9 (1997) and 13-14 (1976-77),
American Journal of Archaeology 79 (1975) and 80 (1976), and Expedition 18 (1976),
pp. 22-23. Two sculptures were returned shortly after the website www.cyrenethefts.org went
live. The website, set up by Donald White and Susan Kane, has now disappeared
from the online world.
February 2011: Archaeological
Plunder & Robberies
During The War in Libya:
As soon as the war came to an end, the headlines were
quick to announce one of the biggest heists of archaeological material in history,
namely the Benghazi Treasure. Museums were also vandalised and robbed during
the February 2011 war, including Assaraya Alhamra, Cyrene and Apollonia. NATO
officials did tell the media, in June 2011, that their bombers would bomb the
archaeological site of Leptis Magna if they confirm Libyan government forces
were using the site to hide military equipment and ammunition. Initial assessments
at Leptis Magna and Cyrene, however, found little damage, while Libya’s new minister
of antiquities, Fadel Ali Mohammed, did confirm some "minimal damage" in
Sabratha. Ptolemais also sustained some minor damage. Quite a number of banks
too were apparently hit during the war, some of which are showing heavy damage,
breach of security and massive holes; but there are no reports of any robberies!
There was another incident of archaeological theft that took place in Tripoli
on the 23rd of August 2011, and this incident is named (only) in this report
by the name: "The Berber Treasure" (see
below for more on this).
So far these are the known incidents of archaeological and museum damage,
vandalism and robberies that took place during and after the February 2011
war. There is no complete survey of desert sites as yet.
The Benghazi Treasure, National Commercial Bank, Omar al-Mukhtar Street
- Benghazi.
Sabratha archaeological site: minimal damage to the site - Sabratha.
Leptis Magna new museum: wall cracks appeared, probably due to nearby
blasts - Leptis Magna.
Assultan, Sert: one of the Philaeni Brothers bronze statue riddled with
bullet holes - Assultan.
Christian War Graves Cemetery: vandalised - Benghazi.
Muslim shrines: graves removed
from some mosques, and a number of tombs were vandalised - Libya.
Gazelle Fountain: attacked with a missile - Tripoli.
(1)
2011: One of The Largest Heists of Archaeological Material in
History: Benghazi Treasure:
31 October 2011:
At the outset of war in Libya, most Libyans and their allies
said Libya's archaeological heritage will be safe from preying eyes and that
Libya will not be like Iraq. But while Libyans still healing their "deepest
wounds",
as the war was coming to an end, one of the largest thefts of archaeological
material in history was unfolding before Odysseus' eyes. Robbers armed either
with jackhammers or other digging tools stormed the bank and dug a hole as they
bored their way through the reinforced concrete ceiling of an underground storage
chamber inside the protected bank. Vaults of rare gold and silver coins,
vintage jewellery, ancient marble statuettes, including that of Love-god Cupid,
were emptied of their contents. At least 7700 pieces
were robbed and quickly disappeared out of the country; some of which later turned
up in the busy Egyptian black market nearby. The good news is that deep beneath
the robbed bank there still remains in a trashed room an untouched vault the
robbers failed to seize, leaving behind a chisel jammed between solid steel and
masonry work. Experts say it is impossible to estimate the value of the hoard,
since there is no full list of the items stolen nor any price tag can be placed
on such irreplaceable items; but London's Sunday Times said a single ancient
Greek coin from Carthage, in North Africa, was sold last month at an auction
in Paris for the record price of $431,000.
On the following day of the news, the Art Newspaper
(Issue 229, November 2011) wrote in its website: "Interpol confirms
Libyan treasure was looted." The report, which gives a different story
regarding the execution of the operation and does not mention any concrete breaking,
says the Benghazi Treasure was
stolen from the bank on the 25th of May 2011 and that Interpol had alerted police.
Apparently two padlocked second world war military chests and a safe were stored
in the vaults of the National Commercial Bank, in Omar al-Mukhtar Street, in
the centre of Benghazi; safekeeping 306 pieces of
ancient jewellery (including necklaces, bracelets, anklets, rings, earrings,
gold armbands and precious stones), 2433 silver
coins, 364 gold
coins, 4484 bronze coins, and 43 other
antiquities including statuettes and figurines of bronze, glass and ivory, medallions,
embossed heads, and a plaque depicting a battle among many other "Things",
have all gone.
For some reason, nearly three months after the uprising started
in Benghazi, and while the city was awash with NTC forces, SAS and Special Forces,
an unauthorised decision was made somewhere in that city, or elsewhere, to move
the treasure to another bank nearby Dujal Hotel in Benghazi. Well, only
one chest arrived; the fate of the other containers is presumably known only
to the drivers. Experts in the field suspect the thieves had moved all
the unwanted items to the chest that happened to arrive at its new destination,
while all the gold, silver, ancient jewellery and other valuable material were
driven to their intended destination.
The Benghazi Treasure has never been displayed in Libya. Its
contents come from the various archaeological sites and temples of Cyrenaica.
It seems that all the finest finds and valuable items ended up in the treasure
the Libyans never saw; and therefore is a loss beyond scope. As if pre-planned
armed conflicts go hand in hand with archaeological robberies and human rights
abuses, the Benghazi Treasure was shipped to Italy in 1942/1943, during the Italian
and allied wars in Libya which the Cyrenaican then heavily resisted. The priceless
chests eventually ended up in Val Brenta, in the Dolomites, in May 1944. Seventeen
years later the same treasure was said to have been returned to Libya, although
there is no way any one can verify the exact same contents were actually returned -
not that that matters so much now after the treasure had disappeared again, during
conflict again. There was no dedicated attempt by either the King's or Gaddafi's
government to fully document and safeguard the treasure, and so
there it remained in the bank awaiting its obfuscated destiny and intrusive opportunists.
The disaster is that most of the finest finds found and discoveries made during
the last 50 years or so were also added to the same cursed Treasure of Benghazi
and therefore its final content is well beyond imagination. Only Tantalus perhaps
can see what seems to be no more than a well-planned operation - an ill-played
illusion.
Whether the robbers were in a hurry or the operation was
a selective inside job is hard to say; although Hafed Walada, a Libyan archaeologist
from King’s College, in London, suspects the latter. Quoted by the Telegraph
he says that the treasure is known only to a very few people and that the robbers
had even ignored cash that was in the vaults; while The London Evening Post wrote: "The
Benghazi raid had occurred soon after an arson attack on the bank. At first this
was believed to have been part of the uprising . . . but it may have been linked
to the well organised robbery." NTC's Fadel Ali Mohammed was
the chairman of the archaeology department in Benghazi and did report the operation
to the attorney-general on the 2nd of June 2011, as well as he sought assistance
from Italy's FM Franco Frattini. However, Hafed Walda was quoted by the London
Evening Post to have said that "Fadel Ali Mohammed . . . first
raised the alarm with the United Nations heritage watchdog UNESCO in July".
*** While The Telegraph says "Libya's National Transitional Council
is believed to have kept it quiet for fear of tarnishing their image at a time
when they were engaged in a desperate battle for survival against the regime
of Col Muammar Gaddafi." **** Details of the robbery emerged
later at a conference held by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), which took place in Paris in late October 2011 -- nearly
5 months after the well-executed heist had taken place; enough time to transport
the hoard to the moon and back 25 times.
"It's a disaster", said Yussuf Ben Nasr, director of antiquities
for the city of Benghazi, Reuters wrote. *
British Libyan antiquities expert Paul Bennet says it was the biggest
theft he has seen.
Italian Serenella Ensoli described the Libyan Job as a very serious
loss on a global scale.
UNESCO's Irina Bukova declared the operation "“one of the largest thefts
of archaeological material in history." **
(Photo: AP: Associated Press / Abdel Magid al-Fergany)
Some of the stone heads display in the return ceremony.
According to a report published
by Reuters, a sack full of stolen archaeological artifacts was found in a vehicle
which was part of a government convoy travelling on the airport road, apparently
fleeing the capital Tripoli after the city first fell to the fighters in late
August. The unit was stopped by the forces guarding the airport, and a heavy
battle ensued. All the items found in the sack were said to date back to Roman
period but "with
very strong local influence". This means that the items belong to the Berber
period and represent Berber culture, since Libyans often find it hard to speak
about the (sensitive) Berber issue, and hence the culture is always referred
to by the name
"Libyan culture", and the Berbers by the name "ancient Libyans" or
"Libyan people". For example, here is what Saleh Algabe, director of
the Antiquities Department in the new Libyan government, reported by Reuters
to have said about this particular treasure: "It
(the collection) is important because it is very rare," . . . " These
pieces confirm the contribution of the Libyan people to early human civilization."
The items, which included a female figurine, 17 stone heads
(said to have been detached from statues), 2nd-century terracotta fragments,
and a painted tile with an image of a dog, were displayed in a public ceremony
at Assaraya Alhamra Museum when Libyan NTC security officials handed them over
to the antiquities department in Tripoli on the 26th of November 2011. The items
apparently were intercepted on the 23rd of August 2011 -- nearly 3 months earlier! When
the officials were asked about this delay, Mustafa Terjuman replied that the
head of the NTC unit responsible for the arrest of the soldiers who took
the artifacts was injured in the fighting soon afterwards, for which he needed
treatment abroad, and that he only alerted the government about the haul after
his return.
* This unnamed incident is named
in this report: "The
Berber Treasure". The name is based on the type of the content
of the haul, and does not exist outside this report.
(3)
2011: Assaraya Alhamra Museum: Vandalism & Theft:
Shortly after the capture of the capital Tripoli by the fighters,
internet sites and blogs circulated the claims that massive looting was underway
in Libya, and that NATO bombed Leptis Magna, and that prehistoric art sites were
vandalised during the recent events in Libya. The claims originally came from
the Russian Nikolai Sologubovsky, apparently a deputy head of a Russian committee
of solidarity with the people of Libya and Syria, who told Russian television
that the National Museum in Tripoli has been looted and antiquities were being
shipped out by sea to Europe. The vandalism of rock art sites was confirmed,
but this was taking place even long before the war, as covered
by Temehu.com here.
At first, many sources rejected the vandalism as unsubstantiated
claims, while UN's Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, warned international
art dealers to keep an eye on archaeological and/or ancient artifacts that may
have been smuggled out of Libya. The sciencemag.com wrote: "Claims
of Mass Libyan Looting Rejected by Archaeologists: The antiquities in the major
sites are unscathed," says Hafed Walda, an archaeologist at King's College
London, who has been in frequent contact with his Libyan colleagues during the
recent arrival of rebels in the capital city last week. "But a few sites
in the interior sustained minor damage and are in need of assessments." http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/09/claims-of-mass-libyan-looting.html
Then on the 11th of September 2011, the Guardian confirms
the news that Assaraya Alhamra Museum was indeed vandalised and items were stolen.
In an article titled: "In Tripoli's museum of antiquity only Gaddafi
is lost in revolution", the guardian.co.uk wrote:
"At 11.30pm on 20 August 2011, as rebels launched
their first attack on the Libyan capital, 20 armed men entered the museum . .
. the rebels spotted the colonel's vintage cars and, as elsewhere, wreaked their
revenge. The windows of the sky blue Beetle were smashed; thousands of shards
of glass now lie on the floor . . . The headlamps are also damaged but
the period gearstick, glovebox, running boards, speedometer and steering wheel
remain intact. Staff at the museum . . . had no choice but to let the rebels
enter. Mustafa Turjman, head of research at the national department of archaeology,
said: "It was a revolution – you can't resist . . . But the vandalism was
swiftly quelled by a plea . . . Although there is graffiti in places and
one broken window, just a cloak and a rifle, used in the Libyan resistance against
Italian occupation, were stolen." Read the full report at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/sep/11/tripoli-museum-antiquity-shattered-gaddafi-image
However, there were several attempts during the fasting month
of Ramadan to attack the museum and loot its contents, but the courage of the
guard Ibrahim Hamad Saleh El-Zintani, and other Libyans who helped him,
had succeeded in protecting the site by placing heavy rocks and scaffolding behind
the gates. And just in case the looters did manage to break in, the guard and
the staff at the museum built and painted a false wall in one museum wing, to
divert looters away from certain sections of the building - the Garamantes
of today!
(4, 5 & 6)
2011: Cyrene & Apollonia Museums Robbed:
According to several media reports, a
mosaic piece was stolen from Cyrene,
and three Roman amphorae were taken from the Museum of Apollonia in Susa, Eastern
Libya; although one source says four
amphorae were
taken. Blueshield said the thief was caught, but so far
the loot had not been retrieved. The archaeological site of Ptolemais has also
sustained "minor damage".
(7)
2011: Leptis Magna Archaeological Site & Museum: Minor
Damage:
The claims circulated across the internet regarding NATO's
bombing of Leptis
Magna were later shown to be not true. NATO did bomb locations
nearby Leptis Magna and Zlitan, but there is no evidence that they bombed Leptis
itself. However, it emerged later that the bombing extravaganza nearby did cause
some reverberating damage, since the laws of physics dictate that the vibration
of blasts travel through the ground way beyond the target's boundaries.
Some of the British bombs used were said to weight 14 tonnes a piece - "way
to heavy by any standard", but there is no information regarding the whereabouts
these bombs were dropped. Blueshield 2011 Libya Report confirmed that the new
museum in Leptis Magna had indeed sustained several cracks in the wall,
possibly from shocks of aerial bombardment in the vicinity of the city. A link
to Blueshield's Libya report is found below.
(8)
2011: Sabratha Archaeological Site Slightly Damaged:
The uprising in Sabratha was quashed very quickly by the Libyan
government. In one battle, lasting nearly three days, NATO bombers moved in and
pulverised Sabratha’s military camp. News soon came out that the archaeological
site was hit. However the damage confirmed by Libyans appears to have been caused
by the fighting on the ground. Only a proper investigation would reveal the exact
causes of each incident. According to the Guardian newspaper, Libya’s new minister
of antiquities, Fadel Ali Mohammed, visited Sabratha in
early September and reported that there was "minimal damage". Blueshield,
however, did confirm that the offices at the archaeological site were apparently
looted, but both museums remained untouched. Offices
in museums and archaeological sites often contain some archaeological artifacts
just arrived or about to be processed and conserved. A covered underground
tunnel was slightly damaged, with the roof caved in, and the perimeter fence
was broken down in many places. Other reports coming from Libya also confirmed
that the ancient theater inside the archaeological site had marks of three bullet
holes.
The fence around Sabratha archaeological site damaged at several location around
the perimeter.
Image from Blueshield's Libya 2011 Report.
According to the 2011 report by Blueshield:
"In Sabratha, one of the most important sites in
Libya, there had been posts from Army Brigade 219 that occupied the place from
early July until the 17th of August. They established several firing positions
and observation posts. Some damage from small arms fire on the amphitheatre can
be found which is minor. There is also some minor damage from anti aircraft fire.
The biggest damage happened to the perimeter fence which was broken down in many
places to get a better killing ground for the Army Brigade."
Download a copy of the Blueshield's Libya 2011 Report:
One of the Philaeni brothers showing bullet holes sustained
during the war. It is not clear when exactly the damage occurred, but a heavy
fight between government soldiers and fighters took place on the 24th of
September 2011 (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/09/24/libya-sirte-idUKL5E7KO0AQ20110924). To
see a photo of the statue with the bullet holes, see: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-forces-advance-on-sirte-nato-planes-in-skies/ .
(10)
The Christian War Graves Cemetery, Benghazi:
A group of unknown vandals has desecrated a number of graves
and headstones in the War Graves Cemetery, in Benghazi, on Friday the 23rd of
February 2012. The national Transitional Council had condemned
the attack on the cemetery. The attack was said to have been related to
the violence in Afghanistan, where US soldiers were reported to have burnt a
number of "holy books" with rubbish at a military base. Washington
apologised to President Karzai for what it said was
"unintentional burning". For more details and photos of the desecrated
cemetery, see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106230/
(11)
Mosques & Tombs Attacked:
On the night of the 10th of October 2011, AFP reported that
a group of more than 200 armed men has attacked a mosque in Tripoli and ransacked
the tombs of two imams. The attackers arrived
in pickup trucks (fitted with heavy guns), forced open the mosque's
door, dug up the tombs of the imams Abdel Rahman el-Masri and Salem Abu Seif,
and made off with their relics. The source did not elaborate on the operation,
but internal reports say the relics were only removed to a cemetery because mosques
should not house human remains.
On the 13th of October, the attackers struck again in
Tripoli, where they attacked about six tombs in and
around the capital. Apparently the shrines were said to belong to sects
whose practices are sacrilegious. But once more internal reports say
the relics were removed to a cemetery for the same reason given above. Mustafa
Abdul Jalil urged all
parties to end the vandalism.
In late February 2012, the Sidi Said tomb, one of the
holy sites of Zuwarah's Berbers, was attacked once again by an unknown group
of attackers.
The same tomb was attacked and demolished during the last decades of the 20th
century when Gaddafi declared his so-called war on
"charlatans". But the Berbers of Zuwarah were later allowed to
rebuild the tomb, after the government reversed its decision.
Libyan Governments' Failure To Protect Libya's Heritage:
Libya's attempts during the last government to
retrieve some of the stolen artifacts expectedly produced no
noticeable results, apart from a few returned items, some of which mentioned
below. The report of the Supervision Authority in Libya blamed the Archaeology
Department for failing to implement strict security systems, and also criticised
the ministries of Justice and Public Security for not implementing a proper program
to find the perpetrators involved in the robberies. But Mr. Juma Anag, former
head of the Archaeology Department, who was actively involved in the recovery
program, had other reasons in mind. According
to the BBC:
"Mr Anag was clearly frustrated and angry as he summed
up the poor state his department is in. "We've been deprived of the necessary
funds to improve our systems, which have been archaic for a very long time, outdated,
weak, inefficient, understaffed, under-funded and under-developed," he said.
The archaeological department says their 2005 budget was 3m dinars ($2.23 million)
on paper but only a quarter of this amount was allocated. They say the budget
is spent on minimum wage salaries but Mr Anag says raising wages would be the
best way to improve security. "If you are paying a guard just over $2 a
day to guard pieces that can be valued at up to hundreds of thousands of dollars
in the black market, he could easily be distracted from his duties by small amounts
of money." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4951770.stm
Libya TV: Libya's Archaeological Heritage: Past & Present.
Sana Almansori speaks to Dr. Mustafa Alh'awwath and Dr. Omran
Khalifa regarding archaeology in Libya.
Dr. Mustafa points out the previous government's neglect and
lack of any interest in protecting Libya's archaeological heritage, citing the
need to rewrite the law regarding archaeology and to re-create the archaeology
department, which he recommends be chaired by Professor Khaled Muhammed Alhadar.
At the start he mentioned prehistoric, Phoenician, Greek, Roman and
other archaeological remains, but, like before, there was no mention of the Berbers'
archaeological heritage.
What Should The New Government of Libya Do?
The ruling authorities of today's Libya
need to have in place a dedicated body to tackle the issue and reconsider
the program to safeguard the existing heritage and recover the stolen treasures.
They need to secure the Sahara's vast heritage.
They need to
secure sunken and off-shore sites still beneath the sea; Tiboda for
a start.
They need to install surveillance cameras in all sections of all museums & archaeological
sites in Libya.
They need to protect this program from corruption and foreign
greed.
They need to start immediately fencing all archaeological sites still
unprotected and grazed by sheep.
They need to establish a professional department
to immediately begin documenting a complete photographic and descriptive catalogue
of all remaining archaeological & museum
items still in Libya.
Most important
of all, they need to seriously follow-up all these programs and guarantee the
implementation and the progress of all recommendations by all necessary means.
This requires the will to allocate substantial funds and put some of the
money to good use.
This requires self-esteem, expertise and the intent to educate
Libyans to work in the field.
This must be done today and
by Libyans; not by anyone else.
This must include, by name, the Berbers and their role in
creating Libya's prehistoric civilisations.
The completed archive then should be published
and made available to museums, libraries and archaeological sites, as well as
can be used to update educational curriculums to educate Libyans and the whole
world about their true history and rich prehistory; protected
as "World Heritage".
This
is very urgent and of paramount importance, since the Libyans recently were
faced with great difficulties while attempting to secure the return
of some of the items stolen from Sabratha's museum for lack of simple paper
work; these items were later seized at the Egyptian border in 2003 and ended
up in Alexandria Museum because the Libyans could not provide any documentation
of any sort to prove to the Egyptians that the items originated in Libya.
Libyans need to rise up to the high tides of time
with clear mind and focused intent to truly preserve Libya's heritage
and build the courage to abandon "ksad".
Returned Archaeological Artifacts:
The
ultimate task facing the new government is to establish a
special committee dedicated to claiming back at least part of the archaeological
heritage smuggled out of the country during the past few centuries. Libya has
the money and the contacts to do this, but it seems as always it lacks the focus
to effect any serious change. Many countries did succeed in reclaiming
some of their stolen heritage via political dialogue and private efforts; since
disappointingly UNESCO's Convention of 1970 on
the recovery of cultural property calls for the return of artifacts procured
only after 1970. Here is what Article 7 of the Convention says:
(ii) at the request of the State Party of origin, to take
appropriate steps to recover and return any such cultural property imported after
the entry into force of this Convention in both States concerned, provided, however,
that the requesting State shall pay just compensation to an innocent purchaser
or to a person who has valid title to that property. Requests for recovery and
return shall be made through diplomatic offices. The requesting Party shall furnish,
at its expense, the documentation and other evidence necessary to establish its
claim for recovery and return. The Parties shall impose no customs duties or
other charges upon cultural property returned pursuant to this Article. All expenses
incident to the return and delivery of the cultural property shall be borne by
the requesting Party."
August 30, 2008, named by Libya as "The Libyan-Italian
Friendship Day", is the day Italy agreed to pay Libya $5 billion as
compensation for its occupation of the country from 1911 to 1943, in a memorandum
signed by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gaddafi. Italy will
also fund $500 million worth of electronic monitoring devices to help Libya crack
down on illegal migrants turning up on Italian shores!! However, Berlusconi had
also agreed to hand over to Libya the statue of Venus of Cyrene, an ancient statue
taken by Italian troops from the ruins of Cyrene during the world wars, that
no longer looks like Venus.
(2)
Ancient Relics Taken By British Soldiers Returned To Libya:
2500-year-old items taken by two British soldiers in the
1950s were returned to Libya by the soldiers' families. Among the items
were a Roman terracotta lamp, representing the god of wine, and a bronze prow
of a Greek ship which was found by the two British soldiers during a diving excursion
off the coast of Benghazi in Eastern Libya.
(3)
Venus of Leptis Magna:
Returned to Libya in 1999.
(4)
Cyrene Sculptures:
Two of the 15 stone head-sculptures stolen from Cyrene in
1999 or early 2000 were returned.
Berber Nesmenser, Zuwarah, Libya,
23 November 2011.
http://www.temehu.com/imazighen/berberdownloads/blueshield-mission-report-libya-2011.pdf
