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.
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 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 archaeological sites 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. 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
and Egypt's treasures during the World Wars – way beyond
imagination; the looting of the Berber Sahara by many
European explorers and colonial tomb raiders; the ransacking
of the Sumerian heritage during the Iraq war; and, of
course, one of the largest thefts of archaeological material
in history that took place in Benghazi, in Libya, during
the early months of the February 2011 war, when the city
was awash with NTC fighters and foreign 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. 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: khaledelhaddar.maktoobblog.com/1616257/ملخص-محاضرة-أ-خالد-محمد-الهدار-عن-الاثا/
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. 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 for 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 Tripoli, told the BBC in
2006 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
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 and beads among
other 'items'. 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. For example, some sections of prehistoric paintings
and engravings were hacked off with saws, while some
paintings had their 'patinas' lifted off the surface
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,
and smuggled out of Libya.
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 the Berber 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 below were published
by the Archaeological Institute of America in their site:
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:
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 'on' Libya, before it was retuned seventeen years
later, even though there is no way anyone can confirm
the same contents were actually returned. The treasure
was apparently returned with a list of the items returned
but had no photos. (See below for the second theft of
the same treasure in 2011.)
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.
Initial assessments at Leptis Magna and Cyrene 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, Sirte: 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.
There was an 'attempt' to destroy the statue of the
Berber Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in Leptis Magna
in 2012.
(1)
2011: One of The Largest Heists of Archaeological Material
in History: Benghazi Treasure
31 October 2011:
At the outset of the war in Libya most Libyans 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
their 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 (see video,
below). 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 reportedly
robbed and quickly disappeared out of the country; some
of which later turned up in the nearby busy Egyptian
black market. 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 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
says the Benghazi Treasure was stolen from the
bank on the 25th of May 2011 and that Interpol had alerted
police.
Apparently two padlocked WII 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 reportedly the city was
awash with NTC fighters 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 and
their masters. 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 –> out of
free Libya.
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 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, or on, Libya – which the Cyrenaicans
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, once again, during conflict.
There was no dedicated attempt from neither the King's
palace nor 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 contents are well beyond imagination
– nearly 100 years of collection vanished suddenly.
Whether the robbers were in a hurry or the operation
was an 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 at the time 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.
While 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 the 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 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 under way in Libya, Leptis
Magna was bombed, 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".
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: 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
bombing Leptis
Magna were later shown to be not true. However,
it emerged later that the bombing nearby did cause some
reverberating damage, since the laws of physics dictate
that the vibration of blasts travel through the ground.
Some of the bombs used in the war were said to weight
14.5 tonnes a piece. 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. 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."
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
[*]. To
see a photo of the statue with the bullet holes, see:
trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-forces-advance-on-sirte-nato-planes-in-skies/ .
*: reuters.com/article/2011/09/24/libya-sirte-idUKL5E7KO0AQ20110924
Update June 2012
Three Italian fishing boats were seized by Libyan authorities
inside Libya's territorial waters. Upon searching the
boats the authorities discovered a number of archaeological
artifacts and internationally prohibited type of
fishing nets. It is not known how many other boats escaped
the attention of the authorities in the past year or
so, but it is almost certain that there are a number
of international organisations that would not hesitate
to take advantage of the current situation in Libya.
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,
informed the BBC that his department was, "Deprived
of the necessary funds to improve" their archaic,
inefficient, understaffed, and under-funded systems;
and that paying guards $2 a day could easily lead to
distracting them from their, "duties by small
amounts of money."
(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; leading the Berbers to call for re-writing
Libya's history.
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 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.
(5)
Khoms Statue
Switzerland has returned to the Libyan Embassy an artifact
said to have been part of a small statue of a female
torso, originally stolen from an archaeological excavation
near Khoms in 1999; before it was bought in the following
year by a Swiss collector. The collector handed over
the item to the authorities after realising it was reported
stolen from Libya.
Update 2016
Libya's archaeological heritage is now in greater danger
as a direct result of the chaos and violence inflicted
by the UN on what was stable Libya. The destruction of
the Libyan government and the security forces allowed
criminal gangs and foreign radical groups to run havoc
across the country. Likewise the curse inflicted on Iraq
and Syria Libya's nurtured terror groups were allowed
to profit from Libya's unique archaeological heritage
right in the open. Apparently some reports speak of Italian
mafia groups selling arms to terror groups in Libya,
the Middle East and across Europe too. Why are such groups
allowed to openly vandalise world heritage sites as well
as spread such violence despite the UN resolutions to
protect civilians remains a mystery. Regarding the crisis
in Libya the vandalism can be categorised as follows:
Libyan Vandalism
Many Libyans are taking advantage of the installed chaos
by grabbing land and building houses without authorisation
from the government. The reason is simple: there is no
government in Libya to seek authorisation from, they
say. Some of these sites are part of existing archaeological
sites, such as the case in Cyrene. Any discovered artifacts
during digging were sold in the black market, with the
exception of a few rare cases of some citizens returning
the finds to the relevant authority. There were also
reports of people discovering ancient burial sites in
areas away from archaeological sites. One cemetery near
Abukemmash was looted entirely before the authorities
even heard of the site. Five years have elapsed since
the destruction of Libya and Libya is yet to see a government
that cares about Libya's pagan heritage. There is also
another type of attacks on archaeological heritage orchestrated
by some religous groups who specialise in religous sites,
like sufi tombs, Berber shrines, and Christian cemeteries.
Foreign Organised Vandalism
According to the Daily Beast some Italian mafia groups
(the so-called "Italian mob") are doing business
with terrorist groups from Sirte, Libya. The business
involves selling arms to terrorists in return for stolen
archaeological artifacts. The groups were said to be
thriving in southern Italy. The stolen artifacts are
brought into Italy on "Chinese-flagged cargo
ships coming from Sirte to the Calabria port of Gioia
Tauro" [1]. The report further adds that
the
"weapons are either smuggled back to Libya on
the same container ships or left in Europe to be picked
up by foreign fighters" [1]. The Daily Beast
also stated that the stolen treasures have "been
put on the market by Italy’s Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, who
are working with the Neapolitan Camorra criminal gang",
and that the "showroom is a Mafia-controlled
salami factory in southern Italy" [1]. Items
on sale include:
a Roman decapitated marble head, at: just $66,000.
The Daily Beast said there are no certificates of authenticity
or patrimony for the artifacts on sale. Other reports
however say the stolen hoards were given forged documents
to facilitate their sale. According to Reuters, Russia's
ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, told
the council that around 100,000 cultural objects including
4,500 archaeological sites (including nine World Heritage
sites) are under the control of the terrorists
in Syria and Iraq [5].
Archaeological vandalism spreads to Germa City
This image shows the damage to the entrance of the archaeological city
After the chaos inflicted on Libya by The UN bombing campaign in 2011 it is almost impossible to find an archaeological site that is not vandalised. Similarly, so many sites were vandalised in shredded Iraq as a consequence of the American invasion. The same can be said of dilapidated Syria. In short it seems there is a secret war on the region's heritage that goes hand in hand with the war on/for terror. The damage to the city of Germa, however, includes the vandalism of the entrance to the city (see above image); destruction and theft of lights and electrical cables; and illegal digging (including grave digging) in search of buried treasures.
