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Post by Maggie on Sept 28, 2013 19:59:17 GMT -6
I deeply disapprove of the looting of other countries' cultural property. It might be defensible if a nation would otherwise destroy or damage the goods but that is another discussion. In this case a most beautiful ceremonial cup in what appears to be pristine condition is being returned to Iran after years of sitting in a warehouse in the US. NBC Science News reports:
The ceremonial drinking vessel from the 7th century B.C., cast in the shape of a winged griffin, has been sitting in a warehouse in New York for years. And for years, U.S. officials have been saying they couldn't return it to Iran until relations between Washington and Tehran were normalized. "This piece can't go back," the New York Post quoted James McAndrew, senior special agent in charge of cultural property for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as saying in 2010.
On Wednesday, the piece went back.
"It is considered the premier griffin of antiquity, a gift of the Iranian people to the world, and the United States is pleased to return it to the people of Iran," the U.S. State Department said.
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Post by Maggie on Oct 12, 2013 16:01:08 GMT -6
Well, I am sorry to say that the ceremonial cup is a fake. The only thing worse, in my opinion, than the theft of cultural goods is their counterfeiting. Tablet reports:
A definitive publication by retired Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Oscar White Muscarella clearly demonstrates that what is alleged by even the U.S. State Department to be a 2,700-year-old artifact from Iran is actually a modern fake, dating back to, at the earliest, 1999. The griffin was first seen in Geneva in the gallery of prominent Iranian art dealers and in 2002 was purchased by a wealthy New York collector, who not coincidentally was a trustee of the Met. Not confident about the artifact’s bona fides, the collector asked the dealers to provide authentication. Three experts were produced who promptly attested that the object had been produced in western Iran and dated to ca. 700 B.C.E.
But when the griffin arrived in New York in 2003, one of the Iranian-Swiss dealers was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security on the charge of falsifying the object’s place of origin. The next year he pleaded guilty to falsely stating that the griffin had originated in Syria rather than Iran and received one year of probation and a fine of $5,000. The buyer got her money back. The artifact was seized but the market, the game, was barely disturbed.
Still, this outcome is uniquely Barack. As we all know, he is the giver of cheap gifts to heads of state. I am sure the Iranians appreciate the the thought that went into this one.
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