China's tomb raiders laying waste to thousands of years of history

China's extraordinary historical treasures are under threat from increasingly aggressive and sophisticated tomb raiders, who destroy precious archaeological evidence as they swipe irreplaceable relics.

The thieves use dynamite and even bulldozers to break into the deepest chambers – and night vision goggles and oxygen canisters to search them. The artefacts they take are often sold on within days to international dealers.

Police have already stepped up their campaign against the criminals and the government is devoting extra resources to protecting sites and tracing offenders. This year it set up a national information centre to tackle such crimes.

Tomb theft is a global problem that has gone on for centuries. But the sheer scope of China's heritage – with thousands of sites, many of them in remote locations – poses a particular challenge.

"Before, China had a large number of valuable ancient tombs and although it was really depressing to see a tomb raided, it was still possible to run into a similar one in the future," said Professor Wei Zheng, an archaeologist at Peking University. "Nowadays too many have been destroyed. Once one is raided, it is really difficult to find a similar one."

His colleague, Professor Lei Xingshan, said: "We used to say nine out of 10 tombs were empty because of tomb-raiding, but now it has become 9.5 out of 10."

Their team found more than 900 tombs in one part of Shanxi they researched and almost every one had been raided.

They spent two years excavating two high grade tombs from the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods (jointly spanning 1100BC to 221BC) and found both had been completely emptied by thieves. "It really is devastating to see it happening," Zheng said. "Archaeologists are now simply chasing after tomb raiders."

Experts say the problem became worse as China's economy opened up, with domestic and international collectors creating a huge market for thieves.

Zheng said a phrase emerged in the 1980s: "If you want to be rich, dig up old tombs and become a millionaire overnight."

But he added that a crackdown by authorities was helping to contain the problem to an extent. According to the ministry of public security, police investigated 451 tomb-raiding cases in 2010 and another 387 involving the theft of relics. In the first six months of that year, they smashed 71 gangs, detained 787 suspects and recovered 2,366 artefacts.

Those caught face fines and jail terms of three to 10 years, or life in the most serious cases.

Officials say tomb thefts have become increasingly professionalised. Gangs from the provinces worst hit – Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, which all have a particularly rich archaeological heritage – have begun exporting their expertise to other regions. One researcher estimated that 100,000 people were involved in the trade nationally.

Wei Yongshun, a senior investigator, told China Daily in 2011 that crime bosses often hired experienced teams of tomb thieves and sold the plunder on to middlemen as quickly as they could.

Other officers told how thieves paid farmers to show them the tombs and help them hide from police.

Local officials have insufficient resources to prevent the crimes and often do not see the thefts as a priority. Others turn a blind eye after being bribed by gangs.

Often, raiders return to a site repeatedly over months. In some cases, thieves have reportedly built small "factories" next to tombs – allowing them to break in without being noticed.

But international collectors bear as much responsibility for the crimes as the actual thieves: the high prices they offer create the incentive for criminals.

Wei said: "Stolen cultural artefacts are usually first smuggled out through Hong Kong and Macao and then taken to Taiwan, Canada, America or European countries to be traded."

The sheer size as well as value of the relics demonstrates the audacity of the raiders – last year, the Chinese authorities recovered a 27-tonne sarcophagus that had been stolen from Xi'an and shipped to the US.

It took four years of searching before China identified the collector who had bought the piece – from the tomb of Tang dynasty concubine Wu Huifei – for an estimated $1m (£650,000), and secured its return.

Luo Xizhe of the Shaanxi provincial cultural relics bureau told China Daily: "If we don't take immediate and effective steps to protect these artefacts, there will be none of these things left to protect in 10 years."

He said provincial and national authorities planned to spend more than 100m yuan (£10m) on surveillance equipment for tombs in Shaanxi over the next five years. But video surveillance and infrared imaging devices for night-time monitoring cost 5m yuan for even a small grave, he added.

Spending on protecting cultural relics as a whole soared from 765m yuan in 2006 to 9.7bn in 2011.

Wei, the archaeologist, said precious evidence such as how and when the tomb was built was often destroyed in raids, even if relics could be recovered. "Quite apart from the valuable objects lost, the site is also damaged and its academic value is diminished," he said.

In a particularly alarming case last year, raiders simply bulldozed their way through 10 newly discovered tombs in eastern Jiangxi province.

The Global Times newspaper reported that pieces of coffins and pottery and iron items were scattered across the ravaged site, which was thought to date back 2,000 years. Archaeologists said further excavation was impossible because the destruction was so bad.

After raids, artifact dealers slowly regain trust

It's been two years since swarms of federal agents burst into nearly two dozen homes scattered throughout the archeologically rich Southwest, looking to take down what they believed was a criminal element robbing Native American grave sites and illicitly selling or trading pieces of the nation's heritage.

Prosecutors are nearly done working their way through the list of defendants charged following those raids, having negotiated plea agreements with most that have resulted in nothing more than probation.

But for legitimate dealers and collectors of Indian artifacts, the sting in the rugged Four Corners region - where the boundaries of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado meet - is as fresh today as when the raids happened that summer day in 2009.

Since then, they've been struggling to rebuild their reputations and to dispel the "fantasy" that they are part of a black market dealing in rare, pricey bits of American history - an illusory underground network which, they argue, doesn't exist at all.

"There's not that much crime in this business. It's a very tiny fringe element," said Dace Hyatt, a restoration expert from Show Low, Ariz., who has served as an expert in some of the cases stemming from the raids.

Hyatt and fellow members of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association organized a discussion on the raids this week during the Whitehawk Antique Show, the nation's largest and longest-running Indian artifacts show.

The concerns raised during the meeting echoed what dealers and collectors first brought up a year ago: that the federal government should not have relied on undercover informant Ted Gardiner to make their case.

This time Hyatt was armed with federal court documents that he obtained while working on the cases as part of an effort to determine the market value of some of the items that Gardiner had purchased with government funds as part of the sting operation. The value was key in determining whether the defendants would be charged with federal felonies, rather than misdemeanors.

In one case, Gardiner paid $2,800 for four stones that looked like nothing more than skipping rocks. At best, Hyatt said, the stones could have fetched $100 on the open market.

The FBI evidence list referred to the stones as three prayer sticks and a mountain lion fetish. After seeing photographs, the dealers and collectors in the audience let out a roar of laughter at the suggestion.

The markup for the 25 items that Hyatt reviewed averaged more than 700 percent, he said.

"To me, it's a cut and dry case where the government was clearly inducing felony charges with an erroneous value system," he said. "I know that's a pretty hard statement to make when you're dealing with the FBI and the BLM.

"The facts don't lie and when you're on the right side of truth, it gives you an element of confidence and these are irrefutable facts," he said, referring to what the market is willing to bear for arrowhead collections, pendants, shell necklaces and other artifacts.

Hyatt and others said people were harassed and the case was blown out of proportion.

"Three prayer sticks? A mountain lion fetish? These are just a few rocks," he said. "People started to take their lives and that's the tragedy of it."

The FBI, the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies involved in the raids are standin g behind their investigation, but they have declined to comment since a civil lawsuit is pending and a handful of defendants have yet to get their day in court.

"We're not trying to dodge the issue," David Kice, an FBI special agent in Santa Fe who is assigned to the agency's art theft team, said during one of this week's meetings. "You may have noticed that federal government folks can't talk about ongoing cases, we simply can't."

All 24 of the government's cases hinged on the work of Gardiner, an artifacts dealer who secretly recorded more than $335,000 in purchases over two years from people later accused of digging, collecting, selling or trafficking in artifacts taken from federal and tribal lands.

In March 2010, three weeks before the 52-year-old Gardiner was scheduled to testify, he committed suicide at his home near Salt Lake City.

Jim Owens, a retired attorney and avid collector from Albuquerque, said the idea of a black market was perpetuated by Gardiner himself.

"All of this was a figment of Ted Gardiner attempting to get a salary and selling the FBI and the BLM a bill of goods. There's no other way to say it. He lied."

Gardiner was known to have suffered through substance abuse and mental health issues, but his son, Dustin, told The Associated Press his father believed he was doing what was right by agreeing to be an informant.

"His whole motivation was wanting to protect and preserve that history," Dustin Gardiner said in a telephone interview. He added that those who continue to take aim at his father are "apologists for nothing but an illegal black market."

Aside from the debate over whether a black market exists, a fight is brewing over who is in the best position to act as caretakers for the millions of fragments of history that are floating through the market and sitting on museum shelves or in government warehouses.

No matter whom you talk to, from dealers and collectors to federal agencies, museum directors and archaeologists, they all share intentions for preserving and protecting artifacts.

How that's accomplished and who has the final say is what's causing all the consternation.

Dealers and collectors say they should have a role because they have a passion for the objects, from appreciating them for their simple artistic beauty to researching the history embedded in layers of organic paint or strands of woven yucca.

"Human nature tells me if I buy something, I'm going to take care of it," Owens said. "But more importantly than that, when it comes to people that collect, we have a passion for these articles and we're going to take care of them a heck of a lot better than what reports show the government is doing."

Many at the meetings said they were frustrated. They had hoped federal officials would provide them with a better understandin g of what happened in 2009 and why.

Some also criticized Kice for wanting the Indian artifacts market to "dry up."

"The legal trade creates a market for the illegal trade and creates a market for looted art," Kice said. "Personally, for me it makes it difficult, much more difficult for me to do my job and find those who are trafficking in looted artifacts, illegal artifacts."

The problem is that many artifacts were excavated decades and even centuries ago before Congress enacted laws protecting archaeological sites and cultural property, said Kate Fitz Gibbon, a Santa Fe attorney and ATADA board member. Those items shouldn't be treated as contraband just because they come without an archaeological record, she said.

She suggested to the federal officials and dealers that they appreciate what previous generations did to open the public's eyes to "the beauty and the meaning and the message" of different cultures.

"Let's hope some of the younger generation will continue and will want to be the traders and collectors and scholars of tomorrow," she said, "and let's acknowledge that as valuable as archaeology is, it's not the only way of looking at this art."

Colorado couple charged in artifacts case lost everything, attorney says

Good, Sexy Archaeology says.

When 76-year-old Carl Lavern Crites stood before U.S. District Judge Dee Benson Thursday, he stood as a man stripped of nearly everything.

"Mr. Crites himself has lost his collection," defense attorney Wally Bugden said. "He lost his marriage. It's not too much to say he's lost his health."

Crites, a prolific artifacts collector of Native American artifacts, was sentenced to three years probation, with credit for the two years he's spent awaiting trial in his native Colorado. The last year he will serve unsupervised, but he is not to enter government property for any reason other than travel.

"You seem to be a hardworking, patriotic American in many ways," Benson said. "This case has obviously had a catastrophic effect on your life."

Crites previously pleaded guilty to theft of government property, trafficking in stolen artifacts and depredation of government property. Additional charges of one count each of stealing an archeological artifact and transporting an archeological artifact were dismissed.

He admitted to buying a pair of basket-maker sandals from an undercover federal informant. He also admitted to accompanying others, including a confidential government informant, to public land in San Juan County, where they used a shovel to unearth human remains, pottery shards and a knife without a federal permit in September 2008.

"He certainly understands now — he has a better understanding of how hurtful this is to the Native American people," Bugden said. "He understands he was basically trespassing on sacred ground."

Crites and his wife, Marie, 70, were indicted with 23 others in the 2009 government crackdown on those who deal in Native American artifacts.

As part of his plea agreement, Vern Crites forfeited a collection of artifacts believed to contain as many as 5,000 pieces, worth around $500,000, Bugden said. Now, he is "essentially homeless" and dependent on social security.

"I think Mr. Crites feels the full brunt of the law," Bugden said.

Bugden told Benson that the bulk of Vern Crites' artifacts were found on private property owned by ranchers and farmers that Vern Crites met as a propane supplier. Many were excavated with the property owner's permission.

Prosecutor Richard McKelvie said the government disputes that claim, but that some of the items are being reviewed.

"Surely the United States hasn't made a bad case worse by stealing from a defendant," Benson said. "That would be awful."

McKelvie said the forfeiture of his collection was part of the plea agreement, and that the government allowed the couple to keep their home and vehicles.

Crites apologized to the judge if he seemed stressed or nervous, explaining that he'd been pulling a UHaul trailer since 5 a.m., en route to Portland, where his wife now plans to live.

"I know I made a mistake and that's why I pleaded guilty for it," he said. "I'm sorry for it … I now know how wrong it was and how offensive it was to Native American people."

Marie Crites pleaded guilty to a single count of trafficking in stolen artifacts.

Her defense attorney, Richard Mauro, said her involvement was minimal. An artist whose paintings once hung in the offices of U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, the woman talked with her husband about the sandals and knew about the sale that was eventually made.

"She's not a digger," Mauro said. "She doesn't go on federal land. She's not a major trader. She's 70 years old. She's spent the majority of her life in successful endeavors."

Marie Crites patted her soon-to-be former husband on the arm as she walked to the podium for her own sentencing. Mauro said he's seen people stand before a judge, unfazed, but that was not this client. In two years, he's seen the toll this case has taken.

With her deep, sorrowful alto voice halting, she spoke to the judge. Marie Crites spoke of the respect she has for the Native American people and the love she has of their culture. 

"I am very profoundly sorry for my association with this situation," she said, noting that she's spent decades of her life restoring artifacts. "I'm sorry for the pain this caused."

She was sentenced to 30 days of unsupervised probation.

Benson expressed sincere regret at what has happened to the couple since the charges were filed. He said they "seem like nice people" and commended them for accepting their guilt.

"I hope you don't make more of this than needs to be made of it," he said. "You know what kind of people you are. I hope you don't take it too hard."

Three people have taken their lives in the time since the federal operation ended:  Blanding doctor James Redd, Steven Shrader of New Mexico and the government informant, Ted Gardiner.

Bugden said after the hearing that the government was trying to send a message and he understands that. He even agrees with the principle of that message, but in Crites' case, they were simply "too harsh."

McKelvie didn't oppose the probation recommendations from defense attorneys, citing the Crites' age and health. 

If not for the plea agreement, Bugden said Vern Crites may have gone to trial in an effort to keep his property and prove his ownership. But the government only offered the plea agreement to the Crites as a couple, putting Vern Crites in the position of having to protect his wife by avoiding trial, according to Bugden.

"Mr. Crites wouldn't have denied he was guilty," Bugden clarified. "He never challenged what he did. We never claimed Gardiner entrapped him. Mr. Crites made a bad decision, but it's had an enormous toll."

"People don't understand how enormously stressful it is if you're a decent, patriotic person having to face felonies, fines, imprisonment," he said. "It meant financial ruin for these people. It destroyed their lives." 

Vandals destroy field school dig site

The grass was still wet from dew when a dozen anthropology students trooped out early Monday morning to a farm field where they had been toiling for weeks.

What they found shocked them, said Gregory Vogel, who directs the Archaeology Field School at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. A series of precisely excavated squares, each protected by a plastic awning from the weather, were caved in, apparently by would-be looters.

"They were very disheartened. They put in so much work, and it was gone," Vogel said of the vandalism and theft thought to have occurred Friday evening after the students finished yet another day excavating a site once inhabited by people of the Woodland and Mississippian cultures.

The site is near the southern end of the campus.

The carefully dug "squares," or excavations, where soil is removed by scraping literally one layer at a time, were caved in or marred by large holes where vandals hastily tried to dig for artifacts with shovels stolen from the site.

Vogel, an assistant professor, said the students will have to clear away the caved-in walls, level the holes and start again. All dirt at the site is sifted through screens, many of which were stolen Friday night.

A large, locked equipment storage box, too heavy to carry off, had been pried open just enough for a thief to reach in and pull out a $200 Brunton Pocket Transit, a piece of surveying equipment.

Three large "blocks" or excavation areas were affected. A fourth, which was nearer a street, was left untouched, said Lt. Kevin Schmoll of the SIUE Police Department. Heavy rain on Friday night erased tracks left by the vandals.

The department stepped up patrols in the area, Schmoll said, but could not guarantee that this would prevent more damage or theft.

Most people do not understand that few Illinois archaeological sites contain artifacts that have any commercial value, Vogel said.

He said that tiny pieces of pottery and bits of food items such as burned hickory shells and animal bones could greatly add to the story of people who lived nearly a thousand years ago, if the excavation is done in a precise manner.

"But there is nothing of commercial value here. You couldn't sell it," he said.

In one square, students reached a stage in the excavation, after spending numerous days digging in the hot sun, where they could "sample" a portion of the site. This is a way of helping to date and identify a site's inhabitants.

The Mississippians lived in the area from about 850 A.D. to around 1250 A.D. The Woodland people were much earlier, having appeared around 3,000 years ago.

The site is important, Vogel said, because all of its inhabitants appear to have farmed the area including an early 19th-century farm that once stood in the field.

From BND.com

American arrested over alleged antiquities smuggling in Israel

Israeli authorities arrested a retired American university lecturer (who should have known better) this week on suspicion of selling ancient artifacts illegally to U.S. tourists, they said Wednesday.

The suspect, a tour guide, is accused of selling ancient coins and 1,500-year-old clay lamps, and pocketing the equivalent of $20,000.

He admitted attempting to smuggle antiquities, selling suspected stolen antiques and trafficking in antiquities without a permit, the authorities said.

He was allowed to fly to the United States after depositing "a large bond," to "ensure he will show up for trial in the future," they said.

The suspect faces up to three years in prison.

Amir Ganor, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery, also criticized the buyers, saying Wednesday they "are actually encouraging antiquities robbery and the plundering of the country's history."

The suspect, who has not been named, was detained once before after Israel Antiquities Authority inspectors raided a hotel room where he was selling ancient artifacts, they said. They seized hundreds of objects allegedly stolen by antiquities robbers from different sites throughout the country, they said.

But the suspect was released after questioning, the IAA said in a statement Wednesday, without explaining why.

He was under undercover surveillance during the last week, and resumed his illegal activities, selling artifacts to a group of American tourists, Israeli authorities say.

The tourists were detained Monday in a "wide-sweeping, combined operation" in Eilat and at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

Eilat customs officials and Antiquities Authority inspectors "were amazed to discover that about 20 members of the group possessed dozens archaeological items purchased in Israel illicitly, which they attempted to take out of the country illegally and without a permit," the IAA said.

They seized ancient bronze and silver coins dating to the Second Temple period approximately 2,000 years ago, as well as clay oil lamps and glass and pottery vessels.

The tourists said they had bought them from their tour guide, paying more than $20,000 in total, Israeli officials said.

The tour guide was detained Monday night at Ben Gurion airport while trying to leave Israel, they said.

He had ancient coins, but no permit to export them, plus "evidence indicating dozens of illegal sales of antiquities during the past two weeks," they said.

From CNN

*UPDATE*

When John Lund brought ancient coins and oil lamps from Jordan and Bethlehem into Israel, he had no idea he was breaking the nation’s law.

When he tried to leave the country several days later, he had no idea he soon would be known around the world as an international antiquities smuggler.

The retired university lecturer, author and tour guide lives in Murray and has guided 4,000 people through sites important to Mormon theology for more than 30 years. He was detained on May 14 as he attempted to leave Israel with the ornate oil lamps and 100 bronze coins. He did buy some antiquities from street vendors in Bethlehem, which is under Palestinian control. He said he was not aware he was only to buy from Israeli-authorized dealers and he did not know he needed to obtain an exit visa in order to transport the artifacts out of the country legally.

“Did I break the law? Yes. Did I break the law knowingly? Absolutely not,” he said Thursday. “They need to be clear with tourists with what is legal and not. This is a blind-side. I could not have been more blind-sided.”

Lund guided a group of about 90 people through Bethlehem, and several had run out of cash for souvenirs. He had them write him personal checks in $200 amounts in exchange for extra cash Lund had brought in case such a situation occurred. He also arranged group purchases of Bethlehem baby blankets and Bethlehem alabaster jars with spikenard inside and said he did not make money on the transaction. He said he also facilitated the $2,000 purchase of a silver Tyre shekel, also known as a Judas coin, for one of the tour participants.

During a meeting for the tour group at their hotel, agents from the Israel Antiquities Authority entered and confiscated a binder filled with coins — which he said he has for research into his upcoming book, Bible Coins of Interest to Christians — and several lamps that members of the tour group said they wanted to purchase. Other items from Lund’s hotel room were confiscated, and he was taken to the authority’s headquarters for three hours of “intense interrogation” where he was told he could not ask any questions.

He was released but put under undercover surveillance for the rest of his trip, authority officials said.

The authority said in a statement that Lund had stolen ancient coins in his possession. He also had checks totaling more than $20,000 believed to be from the illegal sales of ancient coins, clay oil lamps, and glass and pottery vessels, the authority said.

Lund was allowed to leave after posting a $7,500 bond meant to guarantee he will return to stand trial, said Shai Bar Tura, deputy director of the authority’s theft prevention unit. Bar Tura said formal charges are expected.

Lund said he paid the money and signed several forms in Hebrew that were verbally translated to him that indicated he had smuggled the items. He said he signed them under coercion and was desperate to get back home to Utah.

Antiquities officials discovered Lund selling artifacts at a lecture he gave in a Jerusalem hotel, Bar Tura said. They seized the items, searched him and his hotel room, where they found hundreds of artifacts, Bar Tura said.

Because all the items had been recovered and Lund was a tourist, “We thought it was appropriate to let him off with a warning,” Bar Tura said. “But we kept our eyes open ... and sure enough, the guy kept on doing what he was told not to.”

Officials at the Israeli border with Egypt examined the bags of members of Lund’s tour group and discovered 50 stolen items that they said Lund had sold to them, Bar Tura said.

An arrest warrant was issued, and Lund was picked up at the airport trying to leave Israel. In his possession, officials found ancient coins and 70 checks written to him by tourists, Bar Tura said.

Bar Tura said Lund could face up to three years in jail if convicted.

Lund plans to appeal to the U.S. Embassy and find a lawyer versed in international antiquities laws to fight the charges, which he says stemmed from a simple miscommunication.

“Am I willing to forfeit a bond of $ 7,125 or plead no contest and pay a reasonable fine for a first-time-made-aware offender? Yes,” he said Thursday, adding that he is willing to voluntarily return other antiquities to Israel even though he has not been asked to do so.

He said he still loves Israel but will have to see how the situation develops before he decides whether he will return to the country in October for another scheduled tour.

“I’m glad to be back safe in America were we have the ability to appeal to civil recourse,” he said. “I’m questioning how democratic that situation was.”

From The Salt Lake Tribune