by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Sep 1, 2022 |
A visit to the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto, MArTA) reminded me why I love museums so much. It is an inspiring place, a valuable educational resource, and an underappreciated repository for art and heritage.
Taranto, Italy
Greek ruins (Temple of Poseidon)
MArTA is located in Taranto, a city located along the inside of the “heel” of Italy in the region of Puglia. It was founded by Spartans in 706 BC, and it became one of the most important cities in Magna Graecia (the Roman-given name for the coastal areas in the south of Italy — Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily — heavily populated by Greek settlers). Two centuries after its founding, it was one of the largest cities in the world with a population of around 300,000 people. Taranto (called Tarentum by the Ancient Romans) was subject to a series of wars, culminating in its fall to Rome in 272 BC. The city fell to Carthaginian general Hannibal during the Second Punic War, but was recaptured (and subsequently plundered) by Rome in 209 BC. The following centuries marked the city’s decline.
Cathedral of San Cataldo
Taranto’s mix of architecture and rich cultural heritage is due, in part, to subsequent changes in leadership between the 6th and 10th centuries AD, during which time it was ruled by diverse groups: Goths, Byzantines, Lombards, and Arabs. Later, during the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century AD, the city served as a French naval base, but it was ultimately returned to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies for a few decades before it officially became part of the Republic of Italy in 1861.
Due to its strategic location on the inlet of the Gulf of Taranto, the city has great naval importance. Taranto served the Italian navy during both World Wars. As a result, it was heavily bombed by British forces in 1940 (the bombing of Taranto and was even noted to have “set the stage for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor” the following year). The city was also briefly occupied by British forces during WWII.
Evidence of the city’s various iterations is evident throughout its streets with impressive cultural sites, including the Greek Temple of Poseidon, the Spanish Castello Aragonese (built in 1496 for the then-king of Naples, Ferdinand II of Aragon), and the 11th century Cathedral of San Cataldo (Taranto Cathedral), where the remains of the city’s patron saint, Saint Catald, lie (he is believed to have protected the city against the bubonic plague). More recent architectural gems include Palazzo Galeota and Palazzo Brasini.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto (MArTA)
Like the city where it is located, MArTA is a rich institution full of incredible treasures. Last month, I had the opportunity to visit MArTA in person. Sadly, the museum, and the city itself, tend to fall under the radar of tourists. It is unfortunate that this site escapes attention, because both Taranto and its vaunted museum are incredible.
MArTA is one of Italy’s national museums. It was founded in 1887, and is housed on the site of both the former Convent of Friars Alcantaran and a judicial prison. Although most architectural structures from the Greek era in Taranto did not stand the test of time, archaeological excavations have yielded a great number of objects from Magna Graecae. This is due to the fact that Taranto was an industrial center for Greek pottery during the 4th century BC. As such, MArTA’s collection is impressive, displaying one of the largest collections of artifacts from Magna Grecia. Besides its rich holdings, this museum is unforgettable because of the ways in which it fulfills its cultural and educational purpose. The museum is arranged and curated along an “exhibition trail” so as to present visitors with a timeline of the city’s history. The displays move through time from the city’s prehistoric era to its Greek and Roman past and its medieval and modern history, in addition to integrating objects from outside Taranto that exemplify its location as a center of trade (including an exquisite statue of Thoth, the Egyptian god of scribes and writing). Toward the end of the trail, visitors are also confronted with information about the modern-day looting of artifacts and the work done to protect the city’s cultural heritage (more on that below).
Amongst other treasures in MArTA are beautifully preserved mosaics, ornate golden jewelry, and ancient gold-covered snake skins. Another museum highlight are the informative displays positioning objects in creative contexts. For example, some objects are displayed along with photographic evidence and documentation about their excavation.
Tomb of the Athlete
The museum presents objects in beautiful vitrines. Some of the highlights on the first floor include thematic displays, such as a wall depicting Medusa’s face on antefixes found in Taranto. The curation includes information about the figure of Medusa in mythology and details on how her portrayal evolved over time. Another engaging display involves #italianmuseums4olympics, the Ministry of Culture’s campaign to support Italian sport and culture during the Olympic games. That particular display includes the sarcophagus of an athlete from Taranto, complete with amphorae found in his tomb that include images of athletic competitions, celebrating Italy’s long tradition of participating in the Olympics since antiquity.
An Apulian krater by the Darius painter returned from the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2009
Looting of Objects on Display
As visitors enter the next floor of the museum’s route, they are confronted with a large restituted antiquity. A large Apulian krater by the Darius painter was returned to Italy in 2009 from the Cleveland Museum of Art after it was recovered by the Carabinieri’s TPC (the nation’s famed “Art Crime Squad”). The work was among fourteen artifacts returned from the Ohio museum after a two-year negotiation resulting from the investigation of a looting network run by Giacomo Medici and Gianfranco Becchina, two well-known dealers of looted materials who sold antiquities at auction and through dealers to supply coveted objects to collectors and museums around the world.
Loutrophoros restituted by the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu in California
MArTA also acknowledges some of the people responsible for the development of its exquisite collection, including past directors and donors. The displays note that the illicit or unknown sale of antiquities has led to the loss of knowledge about their historical and cultural value (when artifacts are illicitly excavated and divorced from their contexts, valuable information is lost in the process). However, the development of patrimony laws has allowed the Italian government to control more of the archaeological discoveries taking place, and other legislation has also encouraged collectors to donate their property to the museum and Italian State. The display also notes the important work by law enforcement and its success in having works repatriated to Italy, as well as its success in confiscating looted artifacts from private owners and collectors during the 20th and 21st centuries in Italy. Part of this display features works returned from major museums abroad, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Getty Museum in Malibu, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Labels and Information
The labels and information offered to visitors at the museum is exceptional, providing valuable information about the historic significance of items on display. Clearly, the museum places great importance on provenance, providing detailed information on where objects were excavated (this information includes exact find spots, with cross streets included for some of the objects), how they entered the museum’s collection, and ways in which the museum has evolved over the decades. Additional information is available to visitors about looting and criminal acts related to the objects, providing useful context.
Copy of the Goddess on Her Throne (the original is in Berlin)
One of the first objects to greet visitors upon their entry is a copy of a goddess on her throne. The original 5th century BC statue is “considered one of the greatest artworks from Magna Graecia.” It was found in 1912 in Taranto, but illegally exported out of Italy. It was then put on the Swiss art market, and finally purchased by the German government. It is currently on display at the Altes Museum in Berlin. Information like this is valuable, because it forces visitors to confront the political, societal, and cultural pressures facing museums, as well as the challenges and realities of the art and antiquities markets. It also provides a practical example of how works can wind up in international museums divorced from their original historical and cultural context.
As the museum’s website states, “The Museum also lends artefacts to other museums to allow global citizens to enjoy. We are aimed at providing first-hand information to all of our visitors so that they understand Europe’s prehistoric period.”
Castello Aragonese
A visit to this museum, and the gorgeous city of Taranto, with its sweeping coastal views, its rich cultural history, and its stunning architectural masterpieces, is essential for anyone visiting Puglia.
Copyrights in all photographs in this post belong to Leila Amineddoleh
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
Objects from the museum’s early collection
Documentation of excavations
Vitrine (provenance information for each object is provided in a side panel)
Provenance on view
Beautiful entryways on each floor
Context with a photograph
by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Aug 15, 2022 |
Do you remember The Goonies, the 1985 Spielberg film about a shipwreck that made amateur treasure-hunters out of an entire generation? It turns out that the film may have been inspired by a real-life shipwreck. In 1693, the Spanish galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos mysteriously disappeared while en route to Mexico from the Philippines.
Historians have long searched for answers about the ship’s tragic fate, and they may have recently found them washed ashore on the Oregon coast. Large pieces of timber discovered by beachcombers sparked an incredible recovery effort, which has produced further evidence that Astoria, Oregon is where the Santo Cristo de Burgos met its end.
Unlike its fictional counterpart in The Goonies, the real-life Santo Cristos de Burgos is not believed to have been transporting a pirate’s treasure. However, the recovery of the ship gives a nod to our favorite fictional motley crew, and inspires us to ponder questions of ownership when an underwater shipwreck is discovered by a private citizen. Specifically, what are the legal, financial, and cultural dynamics at play when a salvor brings a shipwreck to the surface?
The answer may be surprising.
The Goonies may have led you to believe that the finders keepers rule applies to pirate treasure Unfortunately, in practice, a person that salvages items from a ship or that have been lost at sea (also known as a salvor) may lose the gold and the glory. This raises the question: what should a salvor expect to receive if he or she successfully unearths a sunken ship? Should Mikey’s family rest easy with its bag of recovered “rich stuff”? Or should older brother Brandon get to mowing his 377th lawn? To answer those questions, a few laws come into play.
Salvage Law
Traditional principles of salvage law dictate that the salvor of an underwater artifact may claim possession if the artifact has been abandoned (for example, Ariel’s grotto of “things” in Disney’s The Little Mermaid are her gadgets and gizmos for keeps, if she is able to demonstrate abandonment by the original owners). Even if an artifact has not been proven to be abandoned, the salvor may still recover under this law through a “salvor’s award” given by the state. This award can be substantial, reaching as high as 90% of the total value of the recovered property.
Recovering shipwrecks
The recovery of shipwrecks, in contrast to underwater artifacts, tends to be governed by a combination of federal laws (such as the Abandoned Shipwreck Act and the Sunken Military Craft Act), various state statutes (though these vary depending on the state; Nebraska, for example, has limited salvage laws, as not many shipwrecks are recovered in the Cornhusker State), and international law. For example, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage mentions the law of salvage and the law of finds in its Article 4.
These laws heavily tip the scales in the favor of state, federal, and even international interests over a salvor’s potential payout. If a salvor does bring a claim to a shipwreck and relies on traditional salvage law, the salvor’s claim will likely lose to the challenger under these tests, because the burden to show abandonment (crucial for a salvor) is subject to a higher standard.
The Abandoned Shipwreck Act
Under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (43 U.S.C. §2105-06) (which claims ships found more than 22 km offshore as federal property), a salvor who wishes to claim ownership of a recovered shipwreck must prove both a long period of no use or search by the original owner and the express intent to abandon.
Courts are increasingly reluctant to find that the original owner of property has exhibited an express intent to abandon, particularly when the technologies used to recover these centuries-old shipwrecks today did not exist at the time of the alleged abandonment.
Moreover, courts have been impressed by parties who immediately reclaim ownership when news of the recovery is made public, even when the interested party has not actively been searching themselves.
This was the case in People ex rel. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency v. Zych. There, the court ruled in favor of an insurance company claiming the interest to the recovered vessel Lady Elgin. The court’s decision turned on the fact that the company (who was responsible for covering the ship’s voyage) produced centuries-old documentation of a paid insurance claim (dated prior to the invention of the telephone) once the suit was underway. This not only won the insurance company rights to the ship, it also validated the longevity and thoroughness of their internal filing system.
The Sunken Military Craft Act
Even assuming a salvor can surmount the obstacles posed by the Abandoned Shipwreck Act, our treasure hunter may still stumble when faced with the Sunken Military Craft Act (2004).
This Act awards possession of any vessel on a military mission to the ship’s country of origin, even if the country does not attempt to claim ownership until centuries later. While this seems like an easily recognizable classification, it presents an unusual challenge, because most of the ships coming to America in its early days contained some kind of artillery on board for the safety of the crew (and, possibly, a bit of pillaging on the side). That means that most any ship carrying cannons or other traditional weaponry could feasibly qualify under this test, leaving the salvor with no rights in the face of an interested claimant nation.
The UNESCO Underwater Heritage Convention
Finally, even if the salvor manages to maintain rights in the vessel after all of the aforementioned tests, the claim may still be lost when faced with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, an international treaty protecting underwater cultural heritage. Unfortunately for salvors hoping to receive a quick pay-out, Article 4 of this law abandons the law of salvage completely, unless the interested country authorizes the salvage in accordance with the treaty and whatever is recovered is given the highest protection under the applicable country’s law.
Even though the United States is not a party to this treaty, many nations who colonized the United States are, including Italy, Spain, and France. This means that it is certainly an important law that salvors should be aware of, lest they be caught unawares, because of the sheer number of ships lost by these colonizing nations at that time.
What’s at stake?
Finding a shipwreck and recovering a bounty is not simply about saving one’s family from financial ruin, as was the case for Mikey and his gems. Proper recovery of the cultural heritage embedded in shipwrecks, as well as the preservation of priceless pieces of history, is essential to constructing a comprehensive narrative of global history. Things that traditional salvors may discard, accidentally destroy or damage, or overlook – such as pieces of fabric, newspaper, and even teeth and nails – are prized by states, nations, and archaeologists due to their incredible insight into the lives and societies of the people who sailed the ocean blue. And so, treasure hunting – while thrilling – if not done properly, may come at an incredible cost.
So, if you do find a treasure map in your attic and begin your own quest to recover galleons from a shipwreck, consider the balance of state, federal, international, and cultural interests at play. And, before you call the bank with that bag of jewels to save your home from foreclosure, call an art and cultural heritage law attorney to protect your rights.
by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Aug 15, 2022 |
Our founder, Leila, was quoted in the Washington Post, discussing the challenges facing nations making demands for the repatriation of stolen cultural heritage. Read the article HERE.
by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Aug 10, 2022 |
Museo dell’Arte Salvata (Copyright: Leila A. Amineddoleh)
Amineddoleh & Associates LLC is proud to work as a leading law firm in the cultural heritage sector. We have worked with collectors, dealers, museums, law enforcement agencies, and even foreign governments. One of our clients is the Republic of Italy, a nation paradoxically blessed with an abundance of artistic and cultural treasures, but cursed with the solemn responsibility of protecting those treasures. Properly monitoring antiquities and archaeological sites, regulating the market, and protecting cultural heritage is a costly and heavy burden. Every region of the Italian nation is famed worldwide for its cultural treasures, and so the country has developed means to actively protect its heritage through various channels. For instance, Italy is the first nation in the world to have a military unit responsible for the protection of art and heritage.
The Carabinieri Headquarters for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, or TPC) was instituted in 1969. The TPC is a part of the Ministry of Culture and plays an important role regarding the safety and protection of the heritage. The TPC is renowned for its efforts and works with law enforcement agencies around the world to recover stolen and illicitly exported artifacts, assists in heritage protection and management globally, recovers stolen art within Italy and abroad, and works to monitor and regulate the art market for looted or illicitly removed art and antiquities.
The TPC has had tremendous success over the decades, recovering hundreds of thousands of objects worth billions of dollars. In a thrilling recent escapade during 2020, the TPC tracked down a 500-year-old painting stolen from a museum in Naples. Jesus Christ in his “Savior of the World” (Salvator Mundi) aspect. The work is a copy of the infamous Salvator Mundi that sold for over $450 million in 2017 (considered the world’s highest-selling painting to date). The police found this copy stashed in the cupboard of an apartment and arrested the 36-year-old property owner. It was probably easy to spot among the inhabitant’s mismatched cutlery.
Castel Sant’Angelo (Copyright: Leila A. Amineddoleh)
The elite and highly specialized force has celebrated its successes in countless repatriation ceremonies and with art exhibitions. In particular, 2009 marked one of the most high-profile returns resulting from TPC investigations. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the “Met”) returned the Euphronios Krater (infamously known as the “Hot Pot”) to Italy once the TPC and Swiss authorities uncovered an extensive looting network selling black market antiquities from Italy. These objects wound up in the hands of reputable collectors and museums, including the Met, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Getty Museum, Harvard University, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. In the wake of this return, hundreds of other items from that network were returned. These restituted works were exhibited in the Colosseum with much pomp, circumstance, and celebration.
At the United Nations in January 2020
A decade later, in 2019, in honor of the TPC’s 50 anniversary, the Carabinieri, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities organized a comprehensive exhibition of recovered art. “Recovered Treasures: the Art of Saving Art” was on view in Paris and then displayed at the United Nations in New York in January 2020. Our founder, Leila Amineddoleh, was invited to attend this exclusive event to open this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. At the opening, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres aptly stated that the “exhibition not only comprises priceless works of art, it also paints a picture of the power of international cooperation.”
Sign at the entry of “Will the world save beauty?” exhibition
When Italian museums finally reopened after the Covid pandemic, the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome hosted an exhibition entitled “Will the World Save Beauty?,” a show dedicated to exhibited repatriated antiquities, items recovered after natural disasters, works stolen from churches and private institutions, the prevalence of forgeries, and even stolen instruments. Leila also received an invitation from the Carabinieri to view this jaw-dropping show. The juxtaposition of recovered antiquities in a building with nearly 2,000 years of history was both ethereal and moving. This historic site had survived sacking and plundering, and so it was particularly effective to experience repatriated artwork in such a historically rich setting.
Copyright: Leila A. Amineddoleh
At the start of this summer, Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini announced the opening of the Museo dell’Arte Salvata (“Museum for Rescued Art”), a new museum displaying looted works returned to the Mediterranean nation. The concept for this museum is innovative and appealing – hundreds of smuggled, and now repatriated, artworks will be displayed for public view. But the particular items on display will rotate, with the next group of pieces to be presented after October 15, 2022. Once the displayed works are removed, they will be returned to the respective regions of Italy from where they were originally stolen. The museum’s noble aim is to return objects to the collections of small museums that have suffered from the loss of artwork, giving them and the nation of Italy as a whole a boost to aid in post-pandemic recovery for the culture sector.
Copyright: Leila A. Amineddoleh
Our founder had the pleasure of visiting the museum shortly after its fabulous opening. The museum is intimate (the objects are all displayed in one large room), and the exhibition is excellent. The repatriated objects on display are organized in glass vitrines featuring information about the works’ significance, the ways in which they were smuggled, and the importance of repatriation. The museum notes that the objects on display are “mainly from the United States of America.” The United States (in particular, New York) is the center of the art market and so items are sold both legally on the market and illicitly. But US authorities have also been instrumental in recovering stolen and illicitly exported objects linked to Italy.
Franceschini stated: “Stolen works of art and archaeological relics that are dispersed, sold or exported illegally is a significant loss for the cultural heritage of the country…. Protecting and promoting these treasures is an institutional duty, but also a moral commitment: it is necessary to take on this responsibility for future generations.” Stéphane Verger, director of the National Roman Museum, poignantly noted: “I think of this as a museum of wounded art, because the works exhibited here have been deprived of their contexts of discovery and belonging.”
Just a month after this exhibition’s opening, another 142 Italian antiquities seized by the Manhattan DA are headed home to Italy. This included 48 items recovered from private collector Michael Steinhardt during a high-profile seizure in December 2021, where the former hedge fund manager agreed to surrender $70 million worth of antiquities. The most valuable work returned to Italy is a fresco depicting an infant Hercules strangling a snake, valued at $1 million and looted from Herculaneum. Officials revealed that another 60 of the items were recovered from Royal-Athena Galleries in Manhattan.
Copyright: Leila A. Amineddoleh
As this law firm is currently representing the Republic of Italy in an ongoing antiquities dispute, and our founder served as a cultural heritage law expert for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regarding the seizure of items from Michael Steinhardt, traveling to Rome and visiting such an impressive and important exhibition was – in Ms. Amineddoleh’s word – both powerful and gratifying. This highlights the impact of cultural heritage looting and trafficking at the global level and close to home.
The Museo dell’Arte Salvata is located in the Aula Ottagona, a building that had previously been closed for a number of years. The structure is part of the Baths of Diocletian complex, located a few minutes away from Termini Train Station (Rome’s main railway station), and across the street from the Repubblica subway station, in the heart of the Eternal City. Since it is part of the network of national Roman museums, visitors can purchase one ticket and see all five museums for one relatively inexpensive entry price. It is well worth the trip – and visitors can wrap up their visit with a large bowl of cacio e pepe and a hearty glass of Chianti Classico for a true Italian experience.
by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Aug 6, 2022 |
We are pleased to announce that “The Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Cultural Heritage” was recently published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Our founder authored the chapter, “Cultural Heritage, Galleries and Auction Houses.” As an internationally regarded expert on cultural heritage law, Leila was invited to contribute to important publication. Her chapter discusses the historical development of cultural heritage protection, major antiquities controversies, and ways in which these ownership disputes are resolved. The book’s editor, Irini Stamatoudi, is a lawyer at the Supreme Court in Athens (Greece) and a Law Professor at the University of Nicosia (Cyprus). She also served as the General Director of the Greek National Copyright Office, Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The book is available for purchase here.
