Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501310004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID CRARY ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Medium
Though the crime flourishes worldwide, Africa has become particularly vulnerable. Demand for its artifacts is soaring, yet crime-fighting abilities remain feeble as the continent struggles with economic and political turmoil.
A Paris-based coalition of museum directors blames much of the theft on well-organized gangs and middlemen who arrange transactions and transport to unscrupulous buyers in Europe, North America and Japan.
It hopes to mobilize international opinion for a global crackdown on illicit art dealing, similar to lobbying that helped curb trafficking in ivory and the furs of endangered animals.
Hoping to curb the plunder, the International Council of Museums, backed by UNESCO and Interpol, recently issued the first catalog of antiquities and artworks stolen from African museums.
Displayed alongside the Zambian statuettes are intricately carved elephant horns from Nigeria and Congo, an engraved walking stick from Tanzania and an array of expressive masks. Carved tracks of tears run down the cheeks of one mask stolen from the National Museums Institute in Kinshasa, Zaire.
``The objects presented in this brochure represent only a small part of the catastrophe which has hit Africa's heritage,'' says the preface to the council's ``Looting In Africa: 100 Missing Objects.''
Twenty-eight of the items listed were stolen in Nigeria, which suffered another major theft in November after publication of the catalog. The council said 34 bronze, terra cotta and ivory pieces were taken Nov. 11 from the National Museum of Ile-Ife and probably were smuggled to neighboring states for export abroad.
The book lists only objects stolen from museums, not those taken from archaeological sites or smuggled abroad after being purchased at below-market prices by speculators.
Jean Devise, professor of African history at the Sorbonne in Paris, said collectors wary of fakes on the open market are commissioning thefts of masterpieces from museums to assure themselves of authenticity.
``These objects end up in the safes of art lovers, in exchange for enormous sums of money,'' he said.
The council said many African museums lack adequate security systems and have failed to compile thorough inventories that provide needed details for theft investigators.
Interpol, the international police agency based in Lyon, France, is supporting the museum council's campaign. It sent an expert to speak at an October theft-prevention workshop sponsored by the council in Mali. The session drew museum, police and customs officials from west and north Africa.
But Interpol has had difficulty collecting solid information about African art theft. The council said Interpol had only 18 files from the continent - ``a ridiculously low number'' given the scope of the problem.
``African governments, strangled by economic problems, are still not very sensitive to the destruction of Africa's buried past,'' Devise said.
The council said rising political instability across Africa has worsened the problem.
``These criminal acts wipe out the mark left behind by populations for their descendants,'' it said. ``For Africa, such objects are essential to its history, because the written word, was, for the most part, only recently introduced.''
In an article in the catalog, two African museum officials said dealers exploit poverty and unsophistication in rural areas.
``Using money as bait, dealers entice the unwary communities into selling away their heritage, often for prices far below the prevailing market value,'' wrote Shaje'a Tshiluila of Zaire and Manyando Mukela of Zambia.
Devise said one vulnerable category was objects that in the past were considered sacred, but which local leaders are now willing to sell because of changing religious beliefs.
``It is not an exaggeration to talk of cultural genocide,'' he said. ``Entire pieces of Africa's past are destroyed.''
by CNB