The House Christie’s withdrew the four ancient Greek vases from Tuesday’s auction after a leading archaeologist discovered that each of them was linked to a doomed antiquities hoard.
According to the Guardian, the four relics up for auction in New York are linked to Gianfranco Becchina, who was convicted in 2011 of antiquities trafficking.
Christie’s House: What Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis supports
Dr Christos Tsirogiannis, an associate lecturer in archeology at Cambridge University and an expert on looted antiquities and trafficking networks, told the Guardian that incriminating evidence was contained in the auction house’s own correspondence with the dealer, which was seized by police.
He criticized Christie’s for not disclosing that the items, which were to be auctioned in New York on April 9, were easily identifiable as being linked to Gianfranco Becchina, who was convicted in 2011 of illegal antiquities trafficking.
He said that while the Christie’s catalog said it had sold three of the four vases at its Geneva auction in 1979, it had omitted the fact that they had been consigned to the auction house by Becchina.
“This is a new insight into the tricks the market uses at its highest level. They are deliberately excluding a trafficker connection in these three examples, even though they have known about this connection for 45 years,” he said.
Among the vases almost for sale is an Attic cup, decorated with warriors and other figures, from 570-560 BC. about.
It was estimated to fetch $15,000 to $20,000 at the “Ancient Greek Vases from the Zimmermann Collection” auction, but has now disappeared from the website.
The Christie’s catalog notes: “The ancient Greek vases collected by Dr. Manfred Zimmermann (1935-2011) are among the best private collections of their kind assembled in the late 20th-early 21st century.”
Also up for auction was Lot 3, a sphinx-decorated bottle cap, circa 570-550 BC, estimated at $8,000 to $12,000, and Lot 10, a one-horned Dionysus hydria or pot, circa 530-520 BC, estimated at $7,000 to $9,000.
In the last 18 years, Dr. Tsirogiannis has located more than 1,700 looted antiquities in auction houses, galleries, museums and private collections, informing Interpol and other police forces. Although based in Cambridge, he is head of antiquities trafficking research for Unesco’s headquarters on threats to cultural heritage at the Ionian University in Corfu, Greece.
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