CQ1 Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 English Edition Editorial A Question of Perspective Dear readers I was recently at a reception in Brussels organized by the London-based Frieze art fairs and there had a very cordial conversa- tion with a collector. He told me he always looked forward to receiving Cahn’s Quarter- ly and enjoyed reading it when it arrived, though not without a certain disquiet, since the articles were often critical or tackled difficult subjects. I was very grateful for this feedback, because in the heat of battle it is all too easy to forget how our debates about the art trade must sound to outsiders. True, the art trade does tend to be primar- ily reactive. Hence it goes on the defensive whenever it feels unfairly attacked by the slant of media reporting. But that pattern is not inscribed in stone and the trade cer- tainly could be more proactive. Often it is a question of perspective: whether the glass if half full or half empty. We cannot ignore the facts, of course, but we can try to change how we look at them. This is what we have attempted to do in this issue of Cahn’s Quarterly, in which, I am pleased to say, we are launching a novel project undertaken in collaboration with my erstwhile professor of Classical Archaeolo- gy, Prof. Rolf A. Stucky, and the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities. The pull- out centrefold features twenty-eight works of art from the Eshmun Sanctuary that have been missing ever since the Lebanese Civil War, in other words for decades. Our aim in publishing them here is to make them more widely known so that dealers and collectors alike can be on the lookout for them. We hope very much that with the aid of this very specific information, one or the other lost work might eventually find its way back to Lebanon. I would like to see more such initiatives in which the problem of looted art is tackled in a sober and objective man- ner, sine ira et studio. The sculptures from the Eshmun Sanctuary also shed an interesting light on the sub- ject of restitution. Many people are still not aware of the mobility that existed even in ancient times. There was certainly a live- ly exchange of ideas and objects between different cultures and a wide range of trade relations between different states and re- gions. This is also evident from the works illustrat- ed here. They all come from a well-documented, scientifically conducted excavation. There are de- scriptions and excavation photos taken at the exca- vation site for every sin- gle item. There can thus be no doubt whatsoever that this is where the items were found. Yet the works themselves are the prod- uct of various cultures and styles. Alongside the works made in local workshops, there are heads of Cypriot and Greek origin, Roman sculptures and reliefs from the Hauran Massif. This underscores just how sim- plistic and one-sided it is to assert – as is done all too often in restitu- tion cases, unfortunately – that all Greek art comes from the territory of modern Greece, all Cypriot art from Cyprus and all Roman art from what is now Italy. Such sweeping assumptions merely add to the confusion and legal uncertainty and constitute a grave misreading of the cultural history of Antiq- uity. Given the prevalence of so many half-truths and unfounded assertions about the art of Antiquity and the trade in ancient art, it is with great pleasure that I present here (p. 6) a brief summary of the results of the ILLI- CID study published in the spring of 2019. This study was commissioned in 2015 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and bears the rather daunting ti- tle: “Methods of shedding light on a dark field as a basis for fighting and preventing crime taking ancient cultural property as an example.” After three years of research, its working hypothesis that the illicit traffick- ing of cultural property is “an important pil- lar of organized crime” has turned out to be untenable. This did not come as a surprise to us, since the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA) had pre- viously conducted a study of its own that arrived at much the same conclusions. It is to be hoped that the findings of the ILLICID study will at last allow us to draw a line under this topic so that we can devote our energies to what really matters: to preserv- ing works of ancient art and to constantly adding to what we know about them so that we may appreciate them all the more. High relief with bull protome, excavated at the Temple of Eshmun in 1969, miss- ing since the Lebanese Civil War (1973–1990). CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 2 Discovered for You Theatrum – Setting the Scene for Spectacle and Representation century B.C. mimes and Oscan Atellane drama (masques) took the stage. Increasingly pop- ular among the common people were above all the rude, mocking, obscene mimes about intrigue, fraud, adultery, murder, politics and early Christian rites. Their disrespectfulness was harshly criticised by Roman intellectuals and later also by the Church Fathers. On the occasion of the ludi romani (240 B.C., after the end of the First Punic War) Livius Andronicus initiated the production of Latin versions of Greek dramas; it was a decision of cultural-political significance for in this way, the curule aedile (officials for the games) re- ferred back to the traditions of the Hellenistic East. Later, Plautus and Terence studied and reworked the comedies of Menander. Seneca likewise used Greek models in the 1st century A.D. It remains unclear whether he wrote his tragedies for performance; it was only in the Renaissance that they were actually staged. The fabula saltica (dancing plays) emerged in Rome in ca. 40 B.C.; at the same time, Cicero and Horace complained about the continuing tendency towards the spectacular. Emperor Augustus' promotion gave the genre of pan- tomime additional impetus. The pantomimus wore a mask with closed mouth. He acted out a “libretto” based on celebrated scenes from tragedies by means of expressive ges- tures and actions, and was supported by in- strumental music and a chorus that sang the text behind the scenes. The mural shown in fig. 1 exemplifies the effect of such a stage. Personal charisma, great versatility supported by mask changes, and perfect body control were demanded of a pantomimus. Lucian's work on pantomime names Pylades of Cilicia and Bathyllus of Alexandria as the celebri- ty artists of their time (Lucian, De saltatione 34). The pantominus replaced tragedy and, together with the mimus, now dominated the programme. The full, curved lips of the mask of Attis offered for sale by the Cahn Gallery are closed (fig. 2). The pantomimus played the role of Attis wear- ing a Phrygian cap, long sleeves and legwear typical of oriental costume. It was truly a tragic Insights into Roman Theatre The so-called Phylak vases of the 4th century B.C. reflect the impact of Greek theatre that we became acquainted with in CQ 3/2019: actors in bizarre costumes and wearing comic masks perform on wooden stages in front of back- drops with windows and doors. The Phylak farces influenced the emergent Roman thea- tre, as did other farces and mimes performed by the Italic peoples. Their improvised and ex- temporary character prevented their textualis- ation. The accounts of the genesis of Roman theatre provided by historiographers such as T. Livius and C. Rufus and the writer V. Maxi- mus are at such variance with each other that it is difficult to create an accurate reconstruc- tion of the world of Roman theatre today. First so-called ludi scaenici (scenic perfor- mances) on makeshift stages were performed in Rome in the context of the propitiatory cer- emonies held during a plague epidemic (364 B.C., Livius, Ab urbe condita 7, 2). Etruscan in- fluences are reflected in words such as the one for actor, histrio (Etruscan: ister). In the 3rd role as Attis was driven into a mad frenzy by the jealous goddess Cybele and even emascu- lated himself. With the revival of the mystical Cybele-Attis cult (mid-1st century A.D.) thea- tres and private living spaces repeatedly partic- ipated in Attis's fate: Nero publicly sang a poem called Attis, accompanying himself on the lyre (Cassius Dio, Roman History 62, 20, 1 ff.). Re- liefs with pantomime masks of Attis adorned suspended marble oscilla in villas; monumental masks of Attis graced many a theatre. The east- ern wall of the cubiculum of the Casa di Pinario Ceriale (Pompeii, Regio III, Ins. 4.4, ca. 40-50 A.D.) is decorated by a “stage" in the center of which Attis, with herdsman's staff and sickle, leans against a pine tree. The magnificent lamp fragment with a comic mask offered here also reflects the influence of the theatre (fig. 3). The high-quality re- lief emphasises the features typical of comic masks: hair standing on end, wide-open eyes, curved brows, funnel-shaped mouth. The lamp has monumental dimensions and may have decorated a sacred space or, as com- parable candelabra and chandeliers on wall frescoes show, a private home. Fig. 1: Detail of a stage set with pantomime mask, east wall of the Room of the Masks House of Augustus, Rome, Palatine, in situ. Roman, ca. 30 B.C. Photo: Carole Raddato By Gerburg Ludwig Fig. 2: A PANTOMIME MASKE REPRESENTING ATTIS. H. 23 cm. Terracotta, traces of light blue paint. Roman, 1st cent. A.D. CHF 12,000CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 3 My Choice By Jean-David Cahn Towards the end of the Republic, politicians sought to win voters’ favour by putting the construction of permanent theatres, for which there had long been a demand, on their agen- da. The first Roman theatre to be made of stone was built in Pompeii under Sulla in 80 B.C. Rome owed the construction of its first permanent theatre on the Field of Mars (61 B.C.) to Pompeius; Caesar initiated another one which was dedicated under Augustus as the Marcellus Theatre. These buildings were trend-setting. Designed as a solitary edifice with an exterior façade that shut out the outside world, a Roman theatre consisted of a semi-circular cavea (auditorium) support- ed by substructures, in the interior of which were passages directing spectators to their places according to their social rank. On the opposite side the roofed scaena (stage build- ing) closed off the complex. Its front section (scaenae frons), which became increasingly sophisticated architecturally, had main and side doors through which the performers made their entries. Depending on the theatre’s size, other parts of the cavea were also roofed over, often with a velum (tent roof). The imperial era marked a construction boom throughout the empire. Theatres in the provinces varied and many earlier constructions were rebuilt. In Roman times, the theatre changed with re- gard to content, intent and structure. The com- mon people were entertained, thrilled to ecsta- sy even, but also controlled by rules and social order. By investing in buildings and games, emperors and wealthy citizens cleverly used the theatre as a place of political and pecu- niary representation: Pompeius's portrait stat- ue in the theatre on the Field of Mars already symbolized the cult of personality; numerous imperial statues throughout the empire made the theatre the site of the cult of the emperor. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the de- mise of the old Roman gods, and the reduction of public funding, the ancient theatre tradition also came to an end. Since the revival of the dramas of Antiquity in the Renaissance, how- ever, ancient theatre has continued to exert a complex influence to this day. Fig. 3: A MONUMENTAL ARM OF A RING LAMP OF CA. 1 M DIAMETER WITH COMIC MASK. L. 21 cm. Bronze. Roman, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 16,000 A Geometric Warrior This bronze statuette of a warrior from the Geometric Period makes a monumental impression. The figure has been pared down to its essen- tials, the outline of the body clear- ly delineated. Our gaze follows the long, muscular legs up to the slim waist and from there to the breast rendered as a broad triangle and along the vigorously raised, multi- ply angled right arm. Captured in this remarkable gesture is the in- stant at which the warrior thrusts the lance originally held in his drilled-through hand. His helmet is an Illyrian helmet of the first type. His hair and beard are rudimenta- rily articulated; the nose and chin project out from the face and the expression is one of fierce, almost aggressive, determination. The lowered left arm is only par- tially present and the feet, too, are missing. This raises the question of whether they have been lost – in which case the left hand per- haps held a shield originally – or whether they were never executed at all, but rather deliberately left as stumps. After all, there is no sign of breakage on the left arm and legs, which on the contrary have round- ed termini. The size of the bronze is unusual, as statuettes of this kind are normally about half the size of this one. These statuettes were made in centres of production near the Pan-Hellenic sanctuaries of the 8th century B.C., where they were purchased by vis- itors and subsequently consecrated. The position of the arms, the drill hole through the hand and the style of our figure link it to a statuette from the Acropolis in Athens (21 cm high), which is now in the Na- tional Archaeological Museum in Athens (inv. no. 6616). Our statuette probably adorned a bronze tripod or a cauldron originally. I am drawing your attention to this important early bronze because pieces of this size and quality so STATUETTE OF A WARRIOR. H. 18.3 cm. Bronze. Greek, Geometric, ca. 800–700 B.C. Price on request rarely turn up on the art market. Most representations of humans from this period are found in vase painting; those made of terracotta are rarer and those in bronze rarer still. This particular object comes from a major pri- vate collection built up by the book printer Henri Smeets (1905–1980) of Weert in the Netherlands and was pub- lished in 1975 (E. Godet et al., A Private Collection, Weert 1975, cat. no. 146). CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 4 In Memory of André Lorenceau (1930–2019) By Yvonne Yiu A close bond of friendship that spanned decades and generations and a shared en- thusiasm for the art of antiquity linked the Cahn Gallery with André Lorenceau. For many years, André visited the gallery almost every week. He brought along the artworks that he had restored for us in an old, red wicker basket, discussed the forth- coming work with Jean-David Cahn and the archaeologists and then went upstairs to the secretariat for a cup of coffee and a short chat. While in recent years his visits became less frequent, from spring 2017 to autumn 2018 our restorer, Cristiana Cimicchi, who was also his goddaughter, spent two morn- ings a week with him in his workshop to learn his restoration techniques. Cristiana, who, like her father Sandro Cimic- chi, specialised in ceramics, at first was only allowed to watch but not to touch anything. It was only with time that André gradually permitted her to execute certain steps her- self. André first showed her how to clean and restore bronzes. The procedures are very different to those used for ceramics, but An- dré was good at explaining and patiently corrected her, despite his proud nature. He was a very demanding teacher and always stressed that even if you gave your best and the outcome was good, the result could be better. His extreme insistence on neatness and order was in tune with this uncompro- mising rigour. Everything in the workshop had its own place – if you used a screw- driver, you had to put it back in exactly the right place, even if you knew it would be used again a few minutes later. Cristiana also learned from André how to work with plexiglass and the methods of soldering brass to make pedestals for small artworks. André and Cristiana worked side by side for a while, but during the last few months he did not come down to the workshop any- more because he was too tired. In the course of the morning he would call her and then they would have a cup of coffee together and chat. For both of them it was enjoyable to spend this time together, and to a certain extent it made up for the time missed in the years before when they were caught up in the everyday hustle and bustle. In addition to the techniques that Cristiana was able to learn from André, she and the Cahn Gallery will take over some of André's tools and ma- terials. It is important to us to continue the tradition of craftsmanship for which André stood. André Lorenceau's connection to the Cahn Gallery reaches back to the 1950s. In 1954, after completing his apprenticeship with the Danish goldsmith Christian Fjerdingstad, he found employment at the Maison André in Paris, a firm specialising in the restoration of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. At the time, the most important dealers in ancient art were located in Switzerland, mainly in Basel. However, since there were no qualified restorers in Switzerland, they sent their pieces to Paris where they were cleaned, restored and mounted. For particu- larly large objects, especially sculptures, An- dré travelled to Basel to restore them on site. This was time-consuming and costly, and so a group of Swiss dealers and collectors, including Herbert A. Cahn, Elie Borowski, Robert Käppeli, Christoph Bernoulli and Pino Donati, suggested that André should move to Basel; they would guarantee him a sufficient customer base. In memoriam In Rome, 1957In the cloister of the Lateran Basilica, Rome, 25 May 1957CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 5 Imprint Publisher Jean-David Cahn Malzgasse 23 CH-4052 Basel www.cahn.ch ISSN 2624-6368 Editors Jean-David Cahn Yvonne Yiu Authors Jean-David Cahn Martin Flashar Ulrike Haase Gerburg Ludwig Rolf Andreas Stucky Yvonne Yiu Photos Robert Bayer Niklaus Bürgin Ulrike Haase Design and Layout Michael Joos Printer Rösch Printservice GmbH André accepted the offer and moved to Basel with his young family in 1961, planning to spend a few years there. But those few years soon became decades and finally a whole life. Together with Sandro Cimicchi and their mu- tual friend Franco Italiano, he founded the restoration company Lekythos, for which he worked until his retirement in 1995. Even as an old-age pensioner he continued to support the Cahn Gallery with his great craftsmanship and experience, restoring bronzes, terracotta Contract between André Lorenceau and Herbert A. Cahn, Basel, 24 March 1961 In the Maison André, Paris, February 1961 In his own workshop, Allschwil, June 1990 and glass for us, as well as making pedestals for jewellery and small works of art. We esti- mate that André restored about ten thousand objects during his lifetime. We are deeply saddened by the loss of An- dré. In him we have lost a dear friend and a great master of his craft. We are grateful for the many beautiful moments we were able to spend with him and will always treasure his memory. In his own workshop, Allschwil, March 1974 Our restorer Cristiana Cimicchi learned various restora- tion techniques from André Lorenceau and continues his tradition of craftsmanship. Jean-David Cahn and the employees of the Cahn Gallery would like to express their sincere thanks to René, Claire and Gilles Lorenceau for having gifted us ma- terials and tools from André Lorenceau’s workshop and for providing us with the wonderful historical photographs repro- duced here.CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 6 Acquittal for the Art Trade new import and export restrictions for cul- tural property. If the existence of a major ille- gal market for such goods cannot be proven, then how much less likely it is to exist for other cultural artefacts such as paintings, an- tiques, books and such like, which also fall under Germany’s Cultural Property Protec- tion Act and EU import regulations. The tight regulation of trade has thus lost its erstwhile justification and in retrospect turns out to have been unwarranted. The starting point for the legislation was UN- ESCO’s estimate that the illegal trafficking of cultural property worldwide is a business worth 6 billion dollars a year. Trade associations, by contrast, estimate the aggregate annual sales of all serious antiquities dealers in Europe and the U.S. to amount to no more than 150–200 million dollars. The ILLICID study cites a fig- ure for Germany of just 846,837 euros a year (1.69 million euros over two years), thus con- firming that the claim of a trade worth billions is completely wide of the mark. The study was able to identify 6,133 objects from the regions under scrutiny during the two-year investigation period. But since it did not confine itself to areas under threat A Press Release by the Interessengemeinschaft Deutscher Kunsthandel The Debate I After three years of research at a cost 1.2 mil- lion euros, the findings of the ILLICID study have now been published. The study set out to investigate illicit trafficking in cultural property in Germany, but did not actually find anything. The final reports contain no evidence at all of looting, the financing of terrorism or money laundering. 1 The ILLICID study prejudged the outcome of its research at its launch in 2015, when the project description claimed that revenues from the illegal trade in cultural property were an important mainstay of organized crime, alleging that there were links to drugs and arms trafficking, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Three years later there is no longer any talk of this. Illegal ex- cavations, looting and the financing of ter- rorism are not mentioned at all in the reports. And while money laundering cannot be en- tirely ruled out, says one report, there are no grounds to take it as a given. The study concentrates on ancient art and artefacts from the Eastern Mediterranean, in other words that region that owing to the illegal excavation and looting of archaeo- logical sites prompted the move to introduce and also extended to Greece and Egypt, for example, only 39.9 per cent of the objects could potentially come from Syria or Iraq. More than half of the objects concerned were being offered for sale in groups, which is a practice often preferred for extremely low- price items. According to the report, most of the single-item lots were Graeco-Roman and Egyptian artefacts. Once the valuable Greek vases, Roman glassware and Egyptian sculp- tures had been excluded, however, the total sales amounted to very little indeed. Hence it seems that low-price objects that were pro- duced in large quantities account for most of what is leaving the areas under threat. The study’s efforts to ascertain the prove- nance of the pieces confirm the constant warnings of the trade regarding the imprac- ticability of the Cultural Property Protection Act’s demand for proof of provenance. A provenance prior to the cut-off dates stipu- lated by the Cultural Property Protection Act could be supplied for only 2.1 per cent of the objects. This has to do with the fact that many objects had been in Europe for decades and were not exported just recently from the areas under threat. It follows that they could not possibly have the kind of current export licence required by the law. Their provenance was instead ascertained on the basis of old auction catalogues, inventories and lending lists as well as collection catalogues. This re- course to information published by the art trade shows that auction houses and dealers in ancient art make an important contribu- tion to provenance research and are not the source of obfuscation being sought here. Readers of the report search in vain for any concrete pointers to the kind of dubious play- ers, trade networks and channels or revenue and money laundering that the pilot study set out to uncover, simply because no such evidence was found. The study is thus an ac- quittal for the trade! 1 The reports (in German) can be accessed at tib.eu by entering the keyword ILLICID: a) Verbundname: Illegal- er Handel mit Kulturgut in Deutschland. Verfahren zur Erhellung des Dunkelfeldes als Grundlage zur Kriminal- itätsbekämpfung und – prävention am Beispiel antiker Kulturgüter, Akronym: ILLICID; Teilvorhaben (TV3): Antike Kulturgüter aus dem östlichen Mittelmeerraum: Identifizierung, Klassifizierung und Dokumentation von in Deutschland gehandelten Objekten: Schlussbericht zu Nr. 3.2, BNBest-BMBF 98. b) Abschlussbericht zum Pro- jekt ILLICID; Teilvorhaben «IT Werkzeuge». This image with the caption “Cultural goods are a sought-after commodity" was used to illustrate the project outline of the ILLICID study published by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The choice of image is rather unusual, as the photograph shows the museum storage area on the Forum of Pompeii, a well-protected archaeological site. The caption, however, seems to suggest that we are looking at a “self-service store” for the trade. As important as Roman transport amphorae may be for research, they are of little value from a commercial point of view. CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 7 The Debate II C16 Missing! Lost Sculptures from the Eshmun Sanctuary near Sidon (Lebanon) D4 Museums, art dealers and collectors alike have a profound appreciation for our cul- tural heritage and are committed to protect- ing and preserving it. The past decades have seen the development of numerous instru- ments to ensure that collecting and trading in works of art is in line with these ethi- cal principles. These include, amongst oth- er things, the practice of having works of art offered for sale checked by the Art Loss Register and/or screened against Interpol’s database of stolen works of art. This is im- portant as attempts are repeatedly made to introduce stolen art works into the legiti- mate art market. However regrettable such incidents may be, they can also be seen as an opportunity, be- cause if the parties involved react correctly, they may bring about the restitution of the artworks to their rightful owners. A prere- quisite for this is that it should be generally known which objects are missing. The con- versation between Prof. Dr. Rolf A. Stucky and Jean-David Cahn on the restitution of sculptures from the Eshmun Sanctuary near Sidon (CQ 3/2019, pp. 4-6), however, showed clearly that information about miss- ing works of art is often difficult to access. For this reason we have, with the permis- sion of the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities, decided to publish the following pages illustrating sculptures and reliefs from the Eshmun Sanctuary that disappeared during the Lebanese Civil War (1973-1990) and have remained untraced since then. It is the first time that such a joint endeavour between a government authority and the trade has taken place and we hope that this proactive approach will set a new trend. Contact Should you be aware of the location of any of the sculptures illustrated here, you are kindly requested to contact one of the following per- sons or institutions: Sarkis el-Khoury, Director-General of Antiquities of Lebanon, Beirut: sarkis.khoury@dga.culture.gov.lb Hind Younes, Directorate General of Antiquities of Lebanon, Beirut: hind.younes@dga.culture.gov.lb Directorate General of Antiquities of Lebanon, Beirut: info@dga.culture.gov.lb Prof. Dr. Rolf A. Stucky, Emeritus, Department of Classical Archaeology, University of Basel: rolf-a.stucky@unibas.ch The numbers below the illustrations refer to the catalogue entries in Rolf A. Stucky, Die Skulpturen aus dem Eschmun-Heiligtum bei Sidon. Antike Kunst, Beiheft 17, 1993. The letter-number combinations correspond to those in Rolf A. Stucky, Das Eschmun-Heiligtum von Sidon. Architektur und Inschriften. Antike Kunst, Beiheft 19, 2005. By Rolf A. Stucky and Jean-David CahnCQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 8 198 162 214 179 16017 B42161CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 4/2019 9 193 147747574-75 reconstruction 250 143146137 85868785-87 reconstructionNext >