Word: josephson
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...thumping -- sum. Beforehand, it insists, it had sent out form letters reporting the acquisition to various Mediterranean countries. When Italian authorities later heard what the sculpture looked like, they blew a loud whistle. Since they had no conclusive proof, however, the Getty put its goddess on display. Says Jack Josephson, chairman of the U.S. Information Agency's Cultural Property Advisory Committee: "The museum's holier-than-thou attitude is in contrast to the facts. Where do they think it came from...
Together with the U.S. Customs Service, Josephson's agency has helped stem the smuggling of archaeological loot from one region: Latin America. Plunderers of pre-Columbian sites used to have a field day rifling covertly excavated Mayan, Olmec and Incan ruins and shipping the artifacts north to a voracious U.S. market. In 1970 the UNESCO convention on cultural property established an international framework to curb pillage and the illicit trade in artifacts. Among the rich countries that are the biggest markets for stolen works, however, only the U.S. and Canada signed the treaty. Britain, France, & Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries...
...major concern," Josephson explains, "is that looting destroys the site where artifacts are found, thus wiping away a page of history forever." Turkey fears that an encyclopedia of history will be wiped out. Since the Neolithic Age, the Anatolian peninsula has been a crossroads of conquerors and civilizations. By official count, it is home to 20,000 monuments, 10,000 tombs, 5,000 mounds that may conceal buried settlements and 3,000 ancient cities belonging to 36 various pre-Turkish cultures. It is a virtual supermarket for antiquities -- and looters take their fill...
Source countries themselves bear some blame. Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Italy and other nations claim state ownership of all artifacts underground, but cannot afford what they promise to pay for any finds. Says Josephson: "An Egyptian farmer will not report an archaeological find for fear his fields will be confiscated. So he either throws the object away or sells it to a cousin in Cairo." Though a peasant who finds an artifact makes a small fraction of its retail value -- one contraband Cambodian Buddha head on sale in Hong Kong recently carried a $37,000 price tag -- it is better...
...commander who conducted daily Pentagon briefings during the war. Kelly, who has signed for 60 more speeches, stands to earn some $3 million this year, far more than he made during his 34-year military career and millions of dollars more than Schwarzkopf has made on the podium. Marvin Josephson, Schwarzkopf's agent, says the former Desert Storm commander is too busy writing his book to hit the circuit...