Rescuing stolen art and antiquities

by some estimates up to 70 percent of the  artifacts that we clamor to see in museums all   around the world are actually stolen the underside  of a global market that's worth billions Seth   Doane looks at the growing effort to return some  of these looted Treasures to their rightful owners   here's a dirty little secret up until 10 years ago  it was considered oh so gosh to ask inconvenient   questions of provenance Colonel don't you  understand it just wasn't done he's an assistant   district attorney in Manhattan homicide prosecutor  and retired Marine Colonel with a master's degree   in the classics it makes him a powerful foe  against those trafficking trading or buying   stolen Antiquities the world of cocktail parties  and bespoke suits and limousines pulling up to   the curb how could I ask someone of that stature  do you have the invoice or do you have any proof   that it was legally removed from the country  of origin and so that was then I got it this is   now a mid-seized Antiquities we heard how Matthew  bogdanos has been employing his detective skills   prosecutorial powers and yes a bit of bravado  to Target the illicit art world he founded the   DA's Antiquities trafficking unit in 2010 with  one employee now we have 18 people but it is   relatively young unit was the sense that this was  not important bear in mind that we live in a world   of infinite problems and finite resources I'm  primarily a homicide prosecutor even now that's   half my job much like homicide when beloved one  is taken from you it's forever when an Antiquity   is pillaged it's gone forever your jurisdiction  is New York it's an important big city but it is   just New York yeah the words just in New York  should actually never be in the same sentence   um sure we it's just New York we do have you  know the best galleries in the world some of   the finest museums in the world more importantly  if it passes through New York we have jurisdiction   no matter where it is now if the wire transfer was  made in New York we have jurisdiction no matter   where it is now if it was offered for sale if it  was shown at an auction so sure my jurisdiction   is limited to New York City but to update a phrase  all roads lead to New York when deployed to Iraq   in 2003 bogdanos engaged his troops in tracking  down objects looted from baghdad's Iraq Museum   today his team of civilians detectives agents  and historians has recovered more than 4 500   Antiquities in the U.S. valued around 300 million  dollars it is an honor to be here today just last   Tuesday a more than 2 000 year old bronze bowl or  krater stolen from a tomb in Macedonia was handed   to Greece's culture Minister it was sitting  in a burial tomb ahead of that repatriation   ceremony bogdanos let us get a closer look this  was recovered from an upper east side apartment   here in New York was sitting in someone's home  sitting in someone's home is this Sardinian Idol   here they've recovered objects from 28 countries  repatriating more to Italy than anywhere else   because of that the intro what do you have  inside here Italy's paramilitary police force   the carbanieri granted us access to their vault  in Rome it's packed with stolen and fraudulent   art they've seized major Paolo Salvatori is  commander of the art police's archeology section these objects were illegally excavated he  told us by Italian law they belonged to   the state countries have their own cultural  heritage laws which govern the protection   of Antiquities in enforcing Italy's  Salvatori often turns to a familiar Ally bogdanos's team has helped repatriate more than  500 pieces to Italy and last summer Italy opened   a museum of rescued art in Rome every single  item in that museum was recovered and returned   by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office the  centerpiece was obviously the Orpheus and Sirens   from the Getty that Italy had been trying to  recover for 30 years we asked the J Paul Getty   museum in Los Angeles about those pieces found to  be stolen or illegally excavated they declined our   request for an on-camera interview but told us  thanks to information provided by the Manhattan   District Attorney's office we determined that  these objects should be returned the Metropolitan   Museum of Art in New York however did Welcome Us  in how many objects are in the Met's collection we   generally use the number 1.5 million although it's  a rough number because Andrea Bayer the deputy   director for collections took us to see an object  on loan from Italy the Euphonius krater went back   to Italy and they have been sending us object  by object the Met appeared eager to highlight   constructive cooperation with museums after having  made headlines for showcasing objects that should   not have been there including this gold coffin  which Kim Kardashian posed next to during the   2018 Met Gala it had been illegally smuggled out  of Egypt we were the victims of an international   fraud so we learned it was an uncomfortable  lesson for us that picture of Kardashian went   viral one of the people who saw that photograph  was one of the people who looted that coffin out   of Egypt one of his co-conspirators happened  to be one of my informants sheer coincidence   bogdanos reviewed the paperwork provided to the  met the permit was issued in May in 1971 and the   permit stamp said "AR Egypt" Arab Republic  of Egypt well here's the problem Smugglers:   in May of 1971 the Arab Republic of Egypt did not  exist it was the United Arab Republic and so we   confronted the met with that and the coffin is now  in Cairo where it belongs in recent decades we've   become much more conscientious and conscious of  this history of the objects and more careful by   1970 of the UNESCO guidelines came out saying you  must know where works of art were were excavated   or where they were sold from this is a sort of  dividing line date for us and once the world   Community began to look at things in that way  we've been out in front ever since you say you   try to be out in front of us but subpoenas have  been issued search warrants have been carried out   how embarrassing is that for for an institution so  Mr bogdanos is actually our Ally in this we don't   see this as a confrontational thing with him if  his office is in possession of information that we   do not have it's our responsibility our duty and  the thing we want to do to make sure that it is   returned to the proper owner this is a fantastic  object Andrea Bayer wanted us to see a newer   addition to their collection one of the few great  Antiquities that we've been able to buy in recent   years the Met purchased this Wellhead in 2019 and  Bayer says they can trace its history since it   was excavated and there are no scary gaps in that  provenance that's good for your relief which is a   tremendous relief to me and to and to all of my  colleagues that ancient crater is already on its   way to a museum in Greece Matthew bogdanos once  repatriated pieces overseas put on display and   museums and collectors in the U.S put on notice  we have informants in many museums around the   country so we'll have Undercover I would call  them um academics and archaeologists and art   historians who care and I will call you if they  see something yes you must have a very busy phone

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 107,655

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, art, italy, rescue, art police, carabinieri, museum, metropolitan museum of art

Id: 3JP9KwZo-uM

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2023