Met rescues an Egyptian treasure from auction

New York's Metropolitan Museum has acquired the nearly 4,000 year old Egyptian "Treasure of Haregeh" from Bonhams after it was withdrawn from public auction.

Some pieces of the Haregeh treasure

The Treasure consists of 37 pieces from the Middle Kingdom’s 12th Dynasty (1897-1878 BC) found within the burial tomb of a rich woman of that period. It was excavated between 1913 and 1914 by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and was exported from Egypt to London following permission from the Egyptian authorities under the terms of the contemporary excavation license. The Treasure was then passed on to the St Louis Society, as consideration for the latter’s financial contribution towards the excavation. It has been said that the St Louis Society, an independent non-profit organisation associated with the Archeological Institute of America, received the items on the condition that they would always be shown in a public collection.

For a century, the treasure was held at the St Louis Art Museum, until the St Louis Society decided to sell the pieces at auction in London, as the annual storage cost had become too high for the organisation The treasure was included in Bonham’s catalogue for its antiquities auction on October 2 for the estimated price of between £80,000 and £120,000 (US$ 130,000-200,000). It featured prominently on the auction house’s website, but was then withdrawn before the lot came under the hammer.

The withdrawal probably occurred since the St Louis Society's decision to sell the treasure was widely criticised by art experts as a loss of a public cultural resource.

The national office of the Archeological Institute of America, the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology and the Egypt Exploration Society insisted that the sale would have contravened the public display condition in the original agreement.

Moreover, those experts stressed that the legal sale of antiquities could provide incentives for global criminal activity. Dr Naunton of the London-based Egypt Exploration society said "While there is a market and while antiquities fetch very high prices, there is incentive for people on the ground in Egypt to continue to find objects and sell them. In this way, legal sales are driving illegal trade". 

Other experts also criticised the sale on the grounds that it would be unethical for publicly-owned collections to be put up for sale to private collectors. Public museums offer the best hope that antiquities are safeguarded against loss or deterioration, and that they remain accessible to scholars and the wider public for study and enjoyment.

Fortunately, the Met intervened by purchasing the majority of the treasure from Bonhams, except for an alabaster travertine headrest which was sold to a private buyer. In a press release, a spokesman for the St. Louis Society's said : "The Metropolitan Museum in New York is the best home for the treasure. We are looking forward to seeing objects and jewelry on exhibition".

Trying to make the MET pay

Ever been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - better known as the MET? Did you pay to get in? Did you know you didn't have to? I have to admit the first time I went it was not clear that the entrance fee was not compulsory. It was only on a subsequent visit that I was asked what I wanted to pay that I realised that I had a choice. It turns out this is not uncommon. However, some appear to have had a more extreme reaction than myself.

Reuters reports that:

... a lawsuit filed on Tuesday against the museum complains that most museum-goers have no idea that the "recommended" $25 entrance fee is nothing more than a suggestion.

The plaintiffs include a member of the museum, along with two Czech tourists who purchased single-day admissions. They argue the museum employs misleading signs and other techniques to dupe its 6 million annual visitors into believing they must pay to gain access.

The museum's rent-free lease with the city mandates that it open its doors to the public for free on multiple days a week, although it is permitted to ask for a voluntary fee. But the lawsuit says the museum deliberately deceives its visitors into believing that the charge is mandatory.

Signs above the admissions desk that list the entrance fees feature the word "recommended" in small type below the word "admissions" in larger, bold type. The lawsuit also pointed out that visitors are funneled in lines to the admissions desks, where cashiers await to collect the fee.

"MMA has misled, and regularly misleads, members of the general public to believe, on all days of the week during times when the MMA is open, that they are required to pay the Admission Fees in order to enter Museum Exhibition Halls," the lawsuit claimed.

... [The] complaint asks for an injunction [requiring the museum to make its policy clearer to visitors] as well as unspecified damages for all museum visitors who, like the three named plaintiffs, paid to enter with a credit card.

This is the second lawsuit filed against the MET challenging its admission fee. Back in November 2012, two members of the MET (represented by the same counsel as this latest claim) brought a very similar claim for consumer fraud, and for charging unlawful admission fees in violation of New York State law.

A spokesperson for the MET says that the claims are unsustainable. It remains to be seen what the court thinks.

Source: Reuters, 5 March 2013, New York Post, 15 November 2012

No sign of thaw in Russia-US art freeze

As reported here, following the decision of the US district court for the DC Circuit in the case of Chabad-Lubavitch v Russia in 2010, Russia imposed a ban on art loans to American institutions, fearing that US authorities would seize Russian art coming into the country and hold it as security in the case.

Despite reassurances from lawyers for the claimants, Chabad-Lubavitch, that they do not intend to enforce the judgment by seizing any Russian art or cultural property loaned by Russia to US museums, the freeze on Russian art into the US continues.

It has now affected numerous US galleries who have been forced to postpone or cancel exhibitions and shows featuring Russian artworks. Further, in response some US galleries, including big players such as the MET, are now considering whether to discontinue their loans of artworks to Russia.

Therefore, almost six months since Russia confirmed that the ban remained in place, there remains little prospect of a resolution. Indeed, the situation will only get worse, especially if the US decide to impose their own freeze.