A former art smuggler and the former head of the Art and Antiquities Squad of the British Police join forces to expose the illegal smuggling of ancient treasures, a multi-billion dollar business.
", "is_us_only": "false", "title": "The Odd Couple of Antiquities & Art Theft", "url": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/treasure-wars/stolen-antiquities-tw/", "country_code_deny_list": [], "allowUserEmbed": "True", "related": { "link": [] }, "credit": "National Geographic", "smil": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/data/xml/stolen-antiquities-tw.smil", "country_code_allow_list": [], "HTML5src": "/video/player/media-mp4/stolen-antiquities-tw/mp4/variant-playlist.m3u8", "still": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/exposure/transcode/0/480/360/?url=http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/media/stolen-antiquities-tw/stolen-antiquities-tw_480x360.jpg", "transcript": "IN THE RAREFIED WORLD OF ANTIQUITIES SALES, PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES\u2026.
SOUNDUP:
\u201csold at 600,000 dallars\u2026\u201d
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cAs a dealer, we are all prostitutes.\u00a0 You have streetwalkers and high class hookers.\u00a0 But basically, we are selling our trade.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Michel van Rijn, Art Theft Consultant
MICHEL VAN RIJN SHOULD KNOW.\u00a0 BY HIS OWN ADMISSION, HE\u2019S HAD A VERY COLORFUL PAST
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cI smuggled from Libya.\u00a0 I stole at the time from Kaddafi.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Michel van Rijn, Art Theft Consultant
SMUGGLING IS A VERY LUCRATIVE BUSINESS FOR THOSE WHO DO IT WELL.\u00a0 RICHARD ELLIS IS THE FORMER HEAD OF SCOTLAND YARD\u2019S ART AND ANTIQUITIES SQUAD.
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cIt's estimated somewhere between three and six billion pounds a year is what is represented in stolen art, antiques and cultural property.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
AND WHEN VAN RIJN WENT STRAIGHT, HE LOOKED ELLIS UP
SOUNDBITE: Michel van Rijn
\u201cWe met because he was chasing me for ten years all over the world.\u00a0 So one day, I was in the Dorchester Hotel\u2026and I called him, we had never spoken.\u00a0 And I said, well, you\u2019re very welcome for a drink, you know.\u00a0 Handcuffs are optional.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 He said, well, that might be difficult if we have a drink together.\u00a0 So let\u2019s ... so we met in the bar.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
AND SO THEY STARTED COLLABORATING .\u00a0 TODAY, MICHEL VAN RIJN WORKS TO EXPOSE THE ART WORLD\u2019S DIRTY DEEDS.\u00a0 RECENTLY HE TEAMED UP WITH SCOTLAND YARD ON THE RECOVERY OF A PRICELESS MAYA HEADRESS.\u00a0 BUT DESPITE THE HIGH PROFILE RECOVERIES, THERE IS MUCH THAT SLIPS THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL BORDERS UNDETECTED.
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cYou'll find whole container loads of antiquities\u2026the hazards should we say of trafficking in antiquities are pretty low.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cYou know, things which are stolen are found fresh in the ground in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, Afghanistan.\u00a0 Nowadays, they are shipped via Dubai where they get the different passport.\u00a0 I mean, they say a respectable Dubai firm who will re-export the art work to London, to Paris, et cetera.\u00a0 So there are no questions\u2026
SUPER CAPTION: Michel van Rijn, Art Theft Consultant
Once in transit, antiquities can be sold anywhere, but Ellis says the primary\u00a0destinations\u00a0are New York and London.
But moving stolen artifacts is only part of the operation.\u00a0 To get top dollar, the object needs to be given an aura of legitimacy.\u00a0 It has to be laundered.\u00a0 one way is to create fake paper trails documenting its history, or provenance.
SOUNDBITE: Richard Ellis
\u201cProvenance of an object is literally its history, who made it, when it was made, where it was made, who owned it\u2026\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
ANOTHER WAY IS TO MISUSE LEGITIMATE TOOLS.\u00a0 THE ART LOSS REGISTER IS A DATABASE OF KNOWN STOLEN ART. HOWEVER, IF THE SMUGGLER IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS THE OBJECT EVEN EXISTS, THE DATABASE CAN HELP COVER HIS TRACKS.
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cThe gallery owner //he can send a photograph of the object to the Art Loss Register.\u00a0 And he will get a letter back saying it doesn\u2019t match our archives.\u00a0 Meaning you have done your due diligence.\u00a0 From that moment on, you can turn around as a dealer, knowing you have a stolen object.\u00a0 You have laundered it and you can sell it to any museum in the world, or any collector, or via any auction in the world.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Michel van Rijn, Art Theft Consultant
furthermore, WHILE SOME COLLECTORS BELIEVE THAT THEIR PURCHASES ARE SAVING eNDANGERED ANTIQUITIES, FREQUENTLY THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. \u00a0These pictures are taken from one of Richard Ellis\u2019 investigations in Egypt AT THE TOMB OF HATEPKA.\u00a0 THE once luminous hieroglyphs WERE SOLD ON THE FOREIGN MARKET.\u00a0 The Tomb walls have been stripped to bare stone.
SOUNDBITE:
\u201cThe value of the object placed on it by the marketplace can be vastly different to that placed on it by the archeologist and science.\u00a0 And when an object is illegally excavated, it loses its context.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
The cards may be stacked against the authorities, but justice can prevail.\u00a0 In 2006, Italian authorities were able to claim a set of Hellenistic VESSELS that had been looted decades earlier. On display at New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum since 1972, the museum has agreed to return the artifacts to Italy after investigations into the dealings of a convicted trafficker suggested a faked provenance for the set.
Examples like this give hope that something can be done to stem the trade, however, it may only be a drop in the bucket.
SOUNDBITE: Richard Ellis
\u201cThere isn't a country in the world that doesn't suffer from cultural property theft.\u00a0 Not one.\u201d
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Ellis, Art Theft Consultant
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