One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared that it had recognized the international outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 as a global pandemic. The COVID-19 virus continues to spread and affect millions around the world. While an end may be in sight due to vaccination developments, the number of cases and deaths globally have reached devastating numbers. 

The Antiquities Coalition has continued monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market in arts and artifacts—licit and illicit—as well as the arts and culture sector more broadly. This update follows our posts from May and August 2020, further demonstrating how COVID-19 continues to put cultural heritage at grave risk, while also affecting the global trade in cultural property.

Sites Suffer Worldwide as Vandalism and Looting Continue

Antiquities at sites in museums worldwide continue to be at risk due to the pandemic. In November, Ernesto Ottone, assistant director general for culture at UNESCO, summarized the current moment: “more looting, less information, fewer missions, fewer controls.”

Around the world, looting, trafficking, and vandalism have continued. In South America, guards discovered a break-in at the Cañete Mapuche Museum in Chile, where thieves had stolen more than 100 Mapuche silver, fabric, and stone artifacts. The September theft revealed a potential black market for South American indigenous material. In Europe, on October 3, vandals attacked several of Berlin’s major museums, hitting about 70 artifacts across with an oily substance, which German media has linked to “a conspiracy theory propagated by coronavirus deniers.” The perpetrators have not been caught. In the Middle East, also in October, reports in Iraq indicated a “renewed wave” of site looting due to the economic crisis compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Al-Qadisiyah University Archaeologist and Assistant Professor Salah Hatem remarked, “Unquestionably, the pandemic and the economic situation, which was worsened by the pandemic, caused a surge in looting activity in Iraq.” In Southeast Asia, photos published in October documented devastating illicit digging for beads and small scale antiquities in Myanmar. 

Incidents have continued as the year drew to a close. In November, a judge working in the judiciary of the Syrian government in the city of Homs was arrested for smuggling antiquities including small statues, pottery, and engraved panels. In December, a woman was arrested in Greece for looting amphorae pieces, thought to have come from Knidos. Later that month, Egyptian officials reported that illegal excavating in the country had more than doubled this year since the outbreak of COVID-19. The interior ministry reported 8,960 cases of illegal digging from March through November, up from 4,115 cases during the same time frame last year. 

In France, a man was accused of being “one of the greatest archaeological looters in European history” after French officials found over 27,000 objects during a raid on his home. The objects included ancient coins, jewelry, statues, and more. 

Antiquities looting has also occurred in the United States as when $11,000 worth of artifacts were stolen from the Mud Island River Museum in October. The museum, located in Memphis, Tennessee, has been closed throughout the pandemic. Park rangers have also noticed an increase in illegal digging for artifacts in Arkansas, leading them to publish a warning in early November that looking for antiquities on public property is illegal.

This phenomenon has extended beyond antiquities—a wave of WWII memorabilia thefts have swept European museums in recent months. In August, thieves broke into the Eyewitness Museum in the Netherlands, taking with them $1.75 million worth of historic artifacts. An October theft of more than $1 million worth of historic artifacts from the Oorlogsmuseum in Ossendrecht, including 23 mannequins dressed in uniforms, followed. In November, thieves stole 20 Nazi artifacts from the Deutsches Museum Nordschleswig in Sønderborg, Denmark.

Struggling Museums in Crisis Around the Globe

Across the United States, some museums have reopened at reduced capacity, but virtually all are now facing huge financial challenges. In New York City, where museums are open at 25% capacity, the picture is dire. The ability for institutions to survive will depend on the size of their endowments, government funding, and limited ticket sales. Museums in the Twin Cities, facing a significant drop in attendance even below the 25% capacity, are carrying a relentless financial burden that may lead to closures. In Europe, struggling museums are shutting down again in accordance with a second wave of lockdowns in countries where cases are rising. With plans to reopen unknown, the fate of European museums remains uncertain. In November, Scotland’s representative bodies for museums warned that many Scottish museums will not make it through the pandemic.

With the overall functioning of museums in crisis, the day-to-day operations of museums have been hit hard. Museum conservators have been unable to travel to work on objects that need care and attention, leaving them at risk for further damage. And the picture remains bleak. Laura Lott, President and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums was quoted: “Depressingly, I think 2021 is going to be as hard, if not harder, than last year.”

The Art Market Faces Challenges and Opportunities

Art Basel’s 2020 mid-year survey of “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Gallery Sector” shed light on many of the challenges the market is facing due to the pandemic. The survey showed that the average value of sales fell 36% during the first six months of 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019. In addition, a third of galleries reported that they downsized their staff in the first half of 2020. 

The survey also indicated some new opportunities for the market. The share of online sales rose from 10% in the first half of 2019 to 37% in the first half of 2020. Also, high net worth (HNW) collectors remained active, with 92% having purchased a work of art in the first six months of 2020 despite the pandemic. 59% of surveyed HNW collectors indicated that the pandemic has increased their interest in collecting. 

In fact, Sotheby’s and Christie’s closed 2020 with $5 billion and $4.4 billion in global sales respectively, both setting records for online and private sales. 

Other gallerists echoed the boom in sales. Los Angeles gallerist François Ghebaly was quoted saying, “The market is raging.” He added that 2020 was his best year ever in sales and profits.

Moving Into 2021

As 2020 ended and the new year began, and vaccinations begin to be administered, there have been some positive developments in the world of art and antiquities: 

• In October, the French National Assembly voted to approve the restitution of 27 colonial-era artifacts in museums to Benin and Senegal within one year.
• After suffering destructive attacks by the Islamic State in 2014, the Mosul Museum has reopened.
• Turkey reported in December that 11.5 million people visited 32 museums and historical sites throughout the country using the government’s digital platform. Explore them yourself here: ktb.gov.tr.
• In December, U.S. Congress passed a bill to fund the creation of new Smithsonian museums on women’s and Latino history.
• In January, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA) was passed by the United States Congress, beginning to close regulatory loopholes that have made the American art market one of the largest unregulated markets in the world. The bill, H.R. 6395, removed antiquities dealers’ current exemption from what are now standard anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations under the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
• In February, a new study claimed that visitors to museums were at a far lower risk of catching COVID-19 than at restaurants, supermarkets, or offices.

Looking Ahead

Thanks to international vaccine rollout efforts, we can finally see the end of the COVID-19 pandemic on the horizon. Unfortunately, though, herd immunity will not mark the end of the art world’s pandemic woes. Inevitably, months of neglect will have led some cultural heritage sites to suffer permanent damage, months of lost revenue will prevent many museums from ever reopening their doors to the public, and months of unchecked looting and theft will have resulted in an untold number of antiquities being lost to cultural racketeers.

That said, the arts and culture have proved to be resilient through crisis after crisis, and COVID-19 will be no exception. It may take time and, indeed, there may be no returning to the “normal” we knew prior to this pandemic. But there may also be new opportunities—for heritage to be part of the post-COVID financial recovery and to contribute to the rebuilding of both local neighborhoods and the global economy. And its value will go far beyond dollars: in a post-COVID landscape—with the world starved for human contact, education, and entertainment—the arts and culture will be needed more than ever.

Throughout the Maghreb region, cultural heritage is under threat.

Important archaeological objects, archival materials, rare manuscripts, and intangible heritage that are held in family or private collections have not been spared. In addition, these materials often do not have the advantages of professional conservation, security, climate-controlled storage, and care that collections in national institutions enjoy. These collections are in many cases unknown, except by owners and close associates, and have not been studied or displayed. 

To protect these important materials, experts from across the Maghreb are working to safeguard these privately owned collections through digitization. They face challenges in this effort – distrust of outsiders, concern that materials might be confiscated, and fear that by revealing the existence of rare and valuable manuscripts, they will become the target of violent extremists and other criminals.

On March 9, join The Antiquities Coalition, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, and the Metropolitan New York Library Council, for a live panel discussion on “Digitization of Privately Held Materials.” We will look at challenges and solutions, both for policy and for the practicalities of digitization and cultural heritage preservation.

This event will feature a Keynote address from Father Columba Stewart, the Executive Director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), in conversation with Abdelhamid Salah, the Director of the Egyption Heritage Rescue Fund. In his role as HMML Executive Director, Fr. Columba travels extensively throughout the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and South Asia cultivating relationships with communities possessing manuscript collections from the early medieval to early modern periods. Under his leadership, HMML’s manuscript preservation projects have increased from one project in Lebanon to projects located in more than a dozen countries. During this time, HMML has photographed tens of thousands of manuscripts in many of the world’s most dangerous and difficult-to-reach places and given priority to preserving the manuscript collections of persecuted or endangered minorities. 

HMML was awarded the 2011 National Medal of Honor from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the highest award a library can receive in the United States. And, he was named by the NEH as the 2019 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

This event will also include a panel discussion led by Dr. Charles Henry, with representatives from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The Antiquities Coalition congratulates H.E. Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak on his appointment as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yemen after serving for more than five years as the country’s Ambassador to the United States.

During his tenure as Ambassador, H.E. Mubarak worked tirelessly to protect Yemen’s rich cultural heritage from the many bad actors seeking to use the conflict embroiling the country as an opportunity to loot, smuggle, and sell its priceless artifacts.

As part of the effort, Antiquities Coalition Founder and Chairman Deborah Lehr published an op-ed with H.E. Mubarak in the Washington Post, calling for the Treasury Department to use its authorities to issue an emergency executive order adding Yemeni antiquities to the list of sanctioned items prevented from import to the United States.

Published on January 1, 2019, the op-ed garnered the attention of many prominent figures, including Eliot Engel, then the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and NPR’s Leila Fadel, who amplified the call for emergency sanctions.

H.E. Mubarak’s efforts to preserve Yemen’s art and antiquities did not stop there. He supported efforts by the Antiquities Coalition to release a report containing the records of 1,631 objects that had gone missing from Yemen’s museums during its recent years of conflict with Houthi militias and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with the goal of engaging the art market, law enforcement, museums, and the public to help to recover these blood antiquities.

“Terrorists and extremists alike also destroy cultural heritage sites for ideological or propaganda reasons, while looting and trafficking antiquities to finance additional brutalities. Yemen is especially vulnerable to this cultural racketeering,” H.E. Mubarak said. “Organized criminals, armed insurgents, and violent groups are plundering our treasures and are smuggling them overseas. Let us combat this crime against civilization and work together for long-term solutions to protecting our cultural heritage and in a manner writ large.”

H.E. Mubarak was also instrumental in securing his country’s ratification of the main international treaty to combat the looting and trafficking of art and antiquities, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. With this accomplished, Yemen was able to request a bilateral agreement with the United States under the U.S. Cultural Property Implementation Act, which it did immediately. The U.S. government responded for H.E. Mubarak’s calls for action—and, in February 2020, announced that it would impose “emergency import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material from the Republic of Yemen,” requiring those importing at-risk Yemeni cultural material into the United States to provide proof that it left the country before that date or legally after it.

We hope that Minister Mubarak will continue his role as a leader in protecting cultural heritage as he takes on his new responsibilities, and we wish him much success.