Morgan Belzic looks like a twenty-something with his blonde curls and polite smile. In reality, he has long passed 30, but he prefers not to reveal his age because every year he plays with his students to have them guess it. He is an archaeologist, researcher and professor at institutions such as the Louvre School, the University of Poitiers and the French National Institute of Art History. In 2016 he was collecting information for his doctoral thesis on the archaeological sites of the Mediterranean cities of Libya. In searching for it, he came across something unexpected: several of the pieces he was studying and that should have been found in their original locations were sold in antique stores. He reported it. A few months later, he received the call from the FBI.
This is the beginning. The last chapter of this story was experienced this Friday in a hotel in Madrid in a symbolic act in which these pieces were delivered to the Libyan ambassador to Spain, Walid Abu Abdula. Two mosaics representing Pyramus and Thisbe, the mythological Romeo and Juliet, a Hercules, other tesserae that symbolize spring… And also sculptures from a necropolis that pay homage to a deceased young aristocrat and a torso with a detached head. In total, 12 works of art looted from three sites in Libya taking advantage of the instability in which the country has been experiencing since 2011, after the fall of Gaddafi. And they weren’t stolen by just any looters, but the police believe that the money obtained from their illegal sale was used to finance the Islamic State. They were a part of the so-called “blood antiquities.”
It was the first police operation carried out in the world cagainst the financing of terrorism through the looting of works of art of territories under the control of terrorist groups. This source of income was a suspicion that could not be confirmed until this investigation. A Catalan gallery owner was arrested there who, according to the national police, had woven “a network of suppliers around the world that allowed him access to archaeological pieces from various civilizations.” The man had even participated in different academic forums on the destruction of the historical heritage of the Middle East by terrorist groups and had even criticized those who acquired pieces from these territories. He is now accused of crimes of terrorist financing, membership in a criminal organization, reception, smuggling and document falsification. The Spanish was just one of the branches into which the investigation was divided to track the looted works, in which the FBI was also involved, which called Belzic that day. “Was a shockalthough they had warned me that they were going to call me with a email five minutes before,” he jokes.
“We identified on this website at least ten sculptures that were for sale in the international market. From that moment until the investigation began in France and Spain, many of them had already been sold. We have concluded that a third of Libya’s heritage has already been plundered,” emphasizes the professor. The main affected are two sites in Apolonia and Cirene, necropolises located in the northeast of the country. “I don’t work alone, but with other archaeologists around the world,” he emphasizes. After these first investigations, several art experts collaborate with the security forces to find all the lost heritage. “Just with the sale of Libyan funerary sculptures, we estimate that the market has moved between 40 and 100 million euros. This means that the market is huge and that we have a lot of work ahead of us,” says Belzic.
The delivery, for the moment provisional of the pieces, has been ordered by the Spanish justice system while waiting for the trial to be held in the National Court. For this reason, for now the works will remain under the care of the Libyan embassy in Spain with the hope that one day they will be able to return home. This return has a special meaning for the plundered countries, which have seen how terrorist and criminal groups moved through the chaos to fleece them of their art and history. It is a common practice, when war starts, art comes out. As an example, a few weeks ago the Spanish police recovered a Ukrainian treasure valued at 60 million euros that a priest had stolen from a church in 2016, shortly after the battle for the annexation of Crimea.
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Professor Walda Hafed was instrumental in certifying the origin of these works. “They are unique! This piece could not be found anywhere else in the world,” he exclaims, pointing to a funerary bust. The expert believes that art is a fundamental element to “preserve Libyan identity.” And he highlights: “Something that is very important right now.” The territory is currently divided, into one area governed by a Government supported by the UN and another under the command of a general.
Professor Hafed is aware that returning these works to countries with such instability may raise suspicions, but, for him, there is a “consensus” that the pieces should be in the hands of their legitimate owners. “There are many challenges: the difficulty of locating the works, establishing ownership clearly, security and financing. But we hope that this act will be the one that opens a path for countries to recover what they have lost,” reflects Hafed. For the general director of museums and archeology of Libya, Mohamed Alfaloos, this act meant a declaration of intentions from his country when it came to demonstrating that it wants to recover all the lost art and put in place “measures to prevent traffickers from looting the sites.”
When the trial is held, for which there is still no date, the first step will be taken towards a final ruling that allows these works to return to Libya, something that has already happened before. Balzic himself participated in the repatriation of some sculptures to the Libyan art museum a few months ago. They had been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (United States) for 30 years. Those found in the private rooms of millionaires who acquire the works are the most difficult to recover. The African country’s heritage was already greatly damaged by the activity of looters in the 1980s and 1990s.
This delivery to Madrid for provisional custody has had such symbolic relevance for the country that it brought together a dozen ambassadors from Arab nations in Spain at the event. Emilio Ramírez is the lawyer for the Libyan embassy and does not hesitate to describe this act as “historic.” “Other pieces have been recovered from other places, but never such an important lot, both in quantity and relevance,” he says. After this, others will come, since other investigations are open in a dozen countries around the world, explains Belzic, to trace all the looted artistic heritage. Not all archaeologists are Indiana Jones, but none of them like art ending up in the hands of looters. They prefer it to be in a museum.
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