-----Original Message-----
From: Cindy Ho [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 March 2005 05:52
To: [log in to unmask]; MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet
Subject: Write to the WSJ. Sign the SAFE petition.
The following article appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,
March 2, 2005. We understand that a number of letters have been written to
WSJ objecting to China's request for a bilateral agreement to restrict US
importation of antiquities from China. I urge you to send a letter in
support of China's request, referencing the March 2nd article to:
Editor
Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
Please visit http://www.savingantiquities.org/i-safe-alert.htm to learn more
about China's request and sign the SAFE petition. Many hundreds of
signatures have been collected thus far. SAFE's final submission to CPAC on
March 20th will include an updated list of signatures in support of the
petition. Please ask your colleagues and students, friends and family to
help us increase the total number of signatures. Everyone signature countss.
With your help, we hope to collect at least 1,000 signatures before the
March 20th deadline. Your support at this time is of vital importance.
The full text of the March 2, 2005 Wall Street Journal article follows:
Treasure Hunt: To Stop the Pillage Of Its Historic Art, China Turns to U.S.;
Hot Antiquities Market Girds For Crackdown as Beijing Pushes Trade
Restrictions; Dealers Go on Buying Spree Karen Mazurkewich . Wall Street
Journal . (Eastern edition). New York,
N.Y.: Mar 2, 2005 . pg. A.1
Author(s):
Karen Mazurkewich
Publication title:
Wall Street Journal . (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Mar 2, 2005 . pg.
A.1
Abstract (Document Summary)
Many recently looted relics, Chinese officials say, ultimately make their
way to U.S. shores. Beijing's submission to the State Department describes
"the appearance of Chinese excavated material in galleries and auctions" and
in "shipping containers filled with archeological artifacts bound for U.S.
ports." The filing cites one intercepted shipment traced to Beijing that
contained over 2,200 items "including ancient porcelain, Buddhist stone
statues and Tibetan sutras" or religious texts.
Michael Teller, an art dealer based in Williamsburg, Va., who trades Chinese
tomb objects, says steps to exclude U.S. auction houses and dealers would
"remove the major competition from China's new enterprises." Mr. Teller
stands to lose substantial business if even a partial ban comes into effect.
"It smells fishy to me," he says.
U.S. dealers are now building up their inventories in anticipation of a
potential ruling by the U.S. At Lam & Co. Chinese Antiques, Mr. Teller
recently had his eye on shelves filled with Han Dynasty horses and figurines
of women from the Tang imperial court, known in the trade as "fat ladies"
for their apple-like cheeks. Any objects brought back to the U.S. now won't
be subject to the new restrictions.
Full Text (2054 words)
Copyright (c) 2005, Dow Jones & Company Inc. Reproduced with permission of
copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without
permission.
HONG KONG -- After two decades shipping antiquities from mainland China to a
shop here on Hollywood Road, Lily Li is used to trouble with the law. She's
been arrested seven times in China on suspicion of smuggling, and she spent
most of 2003 in a Chinese jail. Yet Ms. Li, an art dealer who also owns a
gallery in Manhattan, has never considered any other career.
Until now. If new U.S. restrictions on antiques requested by China go into
effect, she says, "this will close me down."
Ms. Li and other dealers in Chinese artifacts such as terra cotta
sculptures, bronze ware and imperial porcelain are girding for trouble as
their trade comes under increasing legal scrutiny. Beijing last May formally
requested that Washington tightly restrict imports of all Chinese antiques
over 100 years old -- in other words, virtually all antiques of any value.
The U.S. is expected to at least partly honor the request, a step that could
cut into a hot international market for Chinese antiquities. Sales of such
treasures at auction houses in Hong Kong, London and New York reached a high
of over $200 million last year. Private dealers sell millions more and
estimate that nearly half of Chinese antiquities sold end up in U.S.
collections. Now Hong Kong shops are reporting a jump in business as buyers
try to stock up ahead of any restrictions.
In their legal filing, Chinese authorities state that high prices offered by
U.S. collectors have encouraged "rampant" pillaging of archeological sites
and smuggling of cultural artifacts, including 3,000-year-old bronze vessels
and terra cotta figurines from tombs.
Supporting China's efforts are academics, nonprofit groups and others who
believe that the sale of archeological finds is immoral. Their arguments
have gained a much wider hearing since the looting of the National Museum in
Baghdad in April 2003 following the allied invasion of Iraq. International
outrage over those thefts has led to the recovery of more than 5,000 stolen
objects already.
While admitting that some items they buy and sell have unclear origins, many
dealers and museums call the proposed restrictions too far-reaching. They
say private collectors play an important role in preserving valuable art.
And some doubt new rules would stop looting. Indeed, by curtailing Western
competition the move could help boost China's own growing art market, where
antique auctions generated an estimated $50 million last year.
Westerners have been collecting Chinese art for centuries. But lately,
riding a historic economic expansion, China has begun an aggressive campaign
to reclaim its cultural patrimony. In 2003, a state-sponsored preservation
society appealed to 18 foreign museums for the return of thousands of
objects, some plundered during wars in the 19th century. And state
enterprises have anted up millions to buy historic antiquities on the open
market, including $4.5 million paid to a U.S. collector in 2002 to reclaim
four volumes of ancient calligraphic rubbings. Death sentences have been
handed out to some thieves caught pillaging old tombs.
"The fate of our art treasures should reflect the international stature of
our country," Xie Chensheng, honorary president of the Chinese Society for
the Protection of Cultural Relics, recently told a forum in Beijing. China
is through "being kicked around," he added.
By enlisting the U.S., China now hopes to rein in what it calls a major
source of demand for pilfered art. The U.S. State Department is considering
Beijing's application, and last month held public hearings to review
competing arguments presented by preservationists, museums, auction houses
and private dealers.
Under a 1970 United Nations convention on trade in cultural property,
countries can petition the U.S. to restrict importation of important
artifacts. The U.S. typically approves such requests, according to State
Department officials, and has previously granted import limits to 11
nations. Many Italian antiquities are barred, as are rare Khmer sandstones
from Cambodia.
However, the scope of China's request is unusually broad and has caught
antiquity experts off guard. Jay Kislak, a collector of pre- Columbian art
who heads the State Department's 11-member cultural- property advisory
committee, says the submission came as "a complete surprise." A State
Department official said the request may be scaled back during negotiations,
and it remains unclear how soon a ruling could be issued.
Officials with the Chinese government agency seeking the ban, the State
Administration for Cultural Heritage, declined to comment for this article.
Henry Howard-Sneyd, managing director for China and Southeast Asia at
Sotheby's Holdings Inc. , says even tourists bringing home souvenirs could
be caught in a web meant to deter major smugglers. "It captures within its
net innocent sprats when trying to catch large fish," he says. A spokeswoman
for Christie's International PLC said the auction house "has some questions
concerning the scope of the request" and has relayed its concerns to the
State Department.
An agreement with China would give U.S. Customs agents far greater leeway to
seize suspect shipments. Currently, it's up to border officials to determine
if an object is stolen. Under new rules, the burden would shift to importers
to prove their goods left China before the rule took effect. All other
artifacts would need the approval of the Chinese government, which generally
forbids such exports.
The market for all Chinese antiquities has expanded rapidly in recent years
as China's economy has flourished. In Hong Kong, which accounts for more
than half of Chinese antiquities sales globally, auction activity doubled
from 2003 to 2004. Christie's sold $123 million of Chinese antiquities last
year in Hong Kong, London, New York and other markets. The tally at
Sotheby's , which includes 20th- century paintings, leapt to $101 million
from $63 million in 2003.
Most objects sold at auction have been held for years in private
collections, but surging demand has also encouraged looters. In the early
1990s, a cottage industry in the pillage of archeological sites emerged,
bringing a new flood of rare bronzes, jades and terra cotta figurines onto
the market.
Tsou Heng, a retired professor from Peking University, remembers showing up
at an archeological dig in northern China's Shanxi province one morning in
the early 1990s to find thousands of farmers frantically digging up his
excavation site. "I dared not chase them away because there were so many
people," he says. When the looters were done "there was almost nothing left
for research."
Even some of those charged with protecting the national patrimony have been
caught pilfering antiquities. In October 2002, 20 bronze and porcelain
Buddhas that once belonged to Beijing's Palace Museum came onto the auction
block at Christie's. Chinese police investigating the theft later arrested a
security chief for the cultural-relics department in the city of Chengde,
north of Beijing, where the pieces had been on loan.
Antiquities from China are frequently smuggled into ports like Hong Kong.
The city still has its own laws, which permit most items to move legally to
collections abroad. But a series of high-profile arrests in early 2003
signaled Beijing's intent to crack down on such gray markets. Police
detained Ms. Li in China as she returned from a trip to New York. They also
arrested two well-known art dealers based in Macau, accusing them of selling
bronzes illegally excavated in Anhui Province.
Many recently looted relics, Chinese officials say, ultimately make their
way to U.S. shores. Beijing's submission to the State Department describes
"the appearance of Chinese excavated material in galleries and auctions" and
in "shipping containers filled with archeological artifacts bound for U.S.
ports." The filing cites one intercepted shipment traced to Beijing that
contained over 2,200 items "including ancient porcelain, Buddhist stone
statues and Tibetan sutras" or religious texts.
Beijing's request comes as a global movement to restrict the trade of
ancient artifacts gains momentum. Last August, the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation fielded a new eight-man task force on stolen art. In the
European Union, import rules vary widely. But Switzerland, after balking for
years, signed on to the U.N. convention on cultural artifacts during 2003.
And in the United Kingdom, the looting in Iraq generated support for a new
law making it a criminal offense to deal in any archeological items
excavated after November 2003.
"The sale of antiquities is fueling the deliberate destruction of
archeological sites to supply the market," says Lord Colin Renfrew, an
archeology professor at Cambridge University who lobbied for the law. China
is one of the countries worst hit, he says.
Some Western dealers believe restricting imports won't do much to stop
looting, since China has a booming art market of its own. China's government
recently gave domestic traders in art and artifacts a boost by
decriminalizing the ownership of antiques, which had long been stigmatized.
That's drawn a wave of wealthy Chinese buyers seeking status symbols.
Michael Teller, an art dealer based in Williamsburg, Va., who trades Chinese
tomb objects, says steps to exclude U.S. auction houses and dealers would
"remove the major competition from China's new enterprises." Mr. Teller
stands to lose substantial business if even a partial ban comes into effect.
"It smells fishy to me," he says.
In statements submitted to the State Department, U.S. dealers have argued
their trade actually helps cultural preservation. Mr. Teller points out
instances in China when artifacts were destroyed through construction
projects. These include an enormous dam under construction along the Yangtze
River that has flooded thousands of tombs. While condemning the looting of
important cultural items, he calls the problem "miniscule compared to the
unabated destruction by government and private industry."
Mr. Teller says his clients are "doing a service" when they buy objects that
might otherwise be destroyed.
One of those clients is Jim Henderson, a 67-year-old professor of torts and
products liability at Cornell Law School. After making a handsome profit in
Internet stocks, Mr. Henderson began collecting lacquered wooden figurines
from China dating back 2,400 years ago to what's known as the "Warring
States" period. He was so swept up in his newfound collection that he began
to learn Chinese so he could read inscriptions. "Having these pieces is a
surge of enjoyment," he says.
Mr. Henderson admits to feeling some pangs of remorse about collecting
recently unearthed artifacts. But he doesn't believe new restrictions will
eliminate smuggling. They will, however, drive up prices, he figures. "If I
was a dot-com millionaire investing in these things," he says, "I'd be doing
a little dance."
Marc Wilson, director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,
Mo., worries that China's steps to curtail exports could crimp the ability
of Western museums to build their collections. Nelson- Atkins's collection
of 6,800 objects from China was mostly assembled in the 1930s and 1940s, but
there have been recent additions: a celadon architectural model purchased
from a collector at auction in 2001 for $130,000, and a bronze object that
may have been used as a door pole bought from New York dealer James Lally
for about $100,000.
If museums can't display quality objects such as these, Mr. Wilson says,
average Americans will have a tougher time learning to appreciate and
respect China. "It's very shortsighted," he says.
U.S. dealers are now building up their inventories in anticipation of a
potential ruling by the U.S. At Lam & Co. Chinese Antiques, Mr. Teller
recently had his eye on shelves filled with Han Dynasty horses and figurines
of women from the Tang imperial court, known in the trade as "fat ladies"
for their apple-like cheeks. Any objects brought back to the U.S. now won't
be subject to the new restrictions.
Other buyers are also stocking up. Earlier this year, Los Angeles art dealer
Marc Richards waited at a coffee shop on Hollywood Road for a phone call
from a favorite supplier. When shipments arrive from the mainland, the best
pieces go to the first dealer on the scene with cash to spend. Mr. Richards
says he typically budgets about $1 million a year to acquire Chinese
artifacts in Hong Kong, which he resells to his wealthy clients back in the
U.S.
Recently, he's spent $500,000 over and above his usual budget on items that
include some early Tang Dynasty pottery horses, a pair of gargoyle-like
"earth spirits" and a 1,400-year-old sculpture of a camel. If the new U.S.
restrictions go into effect, Mr. Richards says, "my days as an antique
dealer are over."
---
Michael Schroeder contributed to this article.
=========================================================
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