paris february two thousand and nine crowds flocked to the ground pal a day to admire the treasures contained in the private collection of eve and pierre say one of the most prestigious in the world a few days later these precious works were to be auctioned off by christie's. dozens of masterpieces will be changing hands including these two eighteenth century bronze heads a rat and a rabbit which had once been housed in the imperial palace in beijing their sale sparked an uproar in china. ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah. but the present owner doesn't agree to that is she who has given you credit it is there is there. she's on my shoulder shake

a fellow when one is of your own book will it be today cryptic on that lake it actually. except that these heads were stolen back in the nineteenth century it was an eight hundred sixty june the second opium war when french and british troops plundered the forbidden city and ransacked the summer palace. still today the destruction and fair ft are a deep scar for the chinese people. beyond their aesthetic value the bronze heads are considered as priceless items of chinese heritage. should p.r. bags in their former return. to syracuse are you know they raise on me due to their feel like i do it there she knew our surveys it the it it every day

g.d. could occur if you are refs or guys are expected it should off for a day if you are a fake which probably publicly thank. draconian issue. you couldn't muster as an asus last letter he had to go on the boulevard to d.c. if. you do. so it was very fun to share as you do. you. think you know that. you can read the last. century so you. think that. the two heads finally went for

a combined price of twenty eight million euros the conclusive bids came from a chinese businessman who asked to remain anonymous but five days after the sale the mysterious bio revealed his identity at a press conference in beijing and his announcement was more than unexpected. ways. well as a city in a city that's already been well you know it's interesting to look on what it was to see to that idea. as the buyer refused to pay for the objects pillage from his country the big was cancelled and the two bronzes were returned to p.r. back. in china people continued to demand the restitution a demand which took on political dimensions beijing viewed it as a way to exercise a national humiliation but also to confirm its newfound international clout the two

bronzes in the sun the home begs a collection had become symbols of the plundering of their country by the west for christie's it was urgent to calm things down with the chinese in twenty thirty the owner of christie's file swapping no himself sent emissaries to directly negotiate the purchase of the bronzes with. was a good trade we could see over and near. them for therapy know this it had to be up or here or there or it could be due she says his father apparently shores. officially from swapping no returned the heads to beijing out of friendship for the people of china but that wasn't all a few weeks after the return of the bronzes in the presence of the french businessman the chinese government finally gave christie's permission to operate in the country an exchange as described it.

the much publicized case of the summer palace bronzes is far from unique more and more pillaged countries are demanding the return of their cultural assets the trophies of the renowned museums of the western world. really just country is have a legal tool to negotiate for the return of their stolen treasures the nine hundred seventy unesco convention signed in june the era of de colonization imposes on all nations to return objects obtained illegally. in recent years the pressure on renowned museums has intensified. the pergamon museum the most visited in berlin is obliged to know the origins of its collections. you start to understand that what you have here is not

just archaeological object but it's part of the cultural heritage of the region or of these countries and at that point you realize you're talking about a political dimension or a cultural political dimension. as a director i cannot say i don't know when somebody asks me how did your collection actually come into being so my responsibility as director of of this museum is to know everything about the objects. well the key documents in this file the ones that tell us basically that it was ok to take up the objects and this we have to do for everything and i'm considering that we have roughly five hundred thousand objects you know that this is. a huge task ahead for us something that has to be done over decades really five hundred thousand objects all in here so that's an

ongoing process that it will take until i'm retiring but the important thing is somebody is doing it every day because you have to have a lot as i was this is said to have made a new going to close the critics on the present is that extent was said ideologue vick by example in just music lamis on every national device the exact emerged will be a. professor. and. all the friends you see here have been pretty good to see you and we would be acquiring stuff anymore the pergamon stopped acquiring in the one nine hundred thirty s. forty years before the signing of the unesco convention which isn't retroactive this is. so the museum's collection is seemingly protected from demands for restitution but that's not the opinion in turkey especially in the city of god tep young guys and. me and can find committed.

a mr. you know. that we don't at all my. name is that on there was one of them on the ship when there was a debate intern and there was. a man and a leg and then say in an s. and m. as many people in this is from this is now you know that i've had. this black list includes objects on show in the british museum in london but also in the pentagon in berlin although they were all acquired before nine hundred seventy turkey still wants them back. it's not a question of museums anymore because it's a request of the state of turkey. they also are in the process of overcoming. colonial attitudes towards cultural heritage and in this process they have started to realize that. countries in the west have not

always been upfront about their practices of acquiring collections begin to do yeah savation. there is. a palooka. given busy i'm. busy i'm no gunson shante can and can't and then just. a set who didn't give to them made. music and was then to shoot it in this new they are building in. the pillagers happened over a century ago but turkey isn't ready to forget. like china and italy turkey has made the restitution of its treasures a political priority. within its culture ministry the turkish government has set up

a special restitution unit. forty or so lawsuits have already been won resulting in the return of over four thousand objects. one of the special units successes is the restitution of this music of orpheus stolen in the nine hundred fifty s. then purchased by the dallas museum of art after several years of legal wrangling the museum was obliged to return it. while pillage nations like turkey have a legal framework to demand reparations this isn't the case in the private sector where only the market rules. in this antique shop window how many artifacts have a perfectly established origin in many cases it's practically impossible to verify . does the private antiquities

market have its own rules immune to international legislation you know asco had attempted to extend its nine hundred seventy convention to better control private transactions a new convention adopted in one thousand nine hundred five the convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects obliges sellers to prove the legal origin of an artifact it also obliges buyers to demand proof but although the original unesco convention is recognized by one hundred thirteen nations only thirty seven party states have committed to the united wired convention. so the market is winning thriving with its own often shady rules chadian as

embodied by the freeport system one of the main thoroughfares of art market trafficking. the best known are here in geneva but the exist throughout the world free ports were originally special economic zones which stocked in transit merchandise to reduce or avoid customs duties are dealers were soon renting space in these huge warehouses to discreetly store artifacts by allowing people to store all kinds of objects without the slightest control free ports have long been considered as a hub of antiquities trafficking it's estimated there are over a million works deposited here more than twice the number contained in the movie. this swiss establishment guarantees its clients one hundred percent confidentiality its high security site is protected from theft but also from prying eyes artifacts

can be stored safely here for years simple as up a column on the. left you. know i mean you can join on would you like to find a not understood it should one miss with one on sauce fiske out when your d.v.r. would order to keep the tax or look a mess nadal set up. no taxation and appealing advantage for our dealers while the works remain inside a free port they can be sold and bought without being subjected to any kind of tax . customs duties are only paid once when a work definitively leaves the freeport a perfectly legal tax haven right in the heart of europe.

these facilities explain why the gallery phoenix keeps most of its merchandise in free ports and the showcases only a small part of the collection is displayed the gallery belongs to tom one of the biggest antiquities dealers in the world. in twenty ten customs discovered in alley a tons warehouse in the freeport of geneva this is second century romance a copper guess since then it has been the center of a complex legal battle. will awful you know all the people and sank our love and do i love on this on the on the top end of our doctor to find us of hope you bleak put on your own music. so decidedly i don't. know jane i'll come problem.

fesses said proposition the don't assume she miss you don't you have a clue jake do you see the idea don't know dip or perform a shop or add me read of get this used extraordinaire and just admit cant get the ghettos the last i met county i do. in their next your cities used to get examplar good news all morning don't say i'm a modest shock silliman they more. often than not their lawyer the killed collects your. new lead you cannot as your phony palomar shot it in success you and of course that the president. i don't have on. belief in many and upon on a year me do marianne ontario yes is the most ridiculous who belong on get heated this is soccer first elapses to the king what there simply is on c n

c live it equivalency and more in a clear girly goodness. heavy faced with doubts over the object origin the sale was finally cancelled as the so called because it was probably looted in turkey swiss authorities decided to allow it ankara. let your idea for me do cool let your game sit there. but of course if you. imported united it will say aunt jackie amanda who thought they did agree. to sit this exposed does she want to sit for you call this to impress us europe or did you for it as deep as that to the tumble blues doc. via our own all out there full of the story of it we're talking my live any longer than to the club or phone bill.

except that after being restored in london this or coffee because didn't return to geneva until two thousand and nine so the turkish lawyer heading the case believes it comes under the new swiss law which demands every protocol origins for all works of art imported after two thousand and five in september twenty fifteen swiss justice finally ordered the repatriation of the second office to turkey but ali abu tom continues to claim ownership based on a certificate delivered by the company art loss register over four years that if you get a positive early. book of us by that suit the glare is that if you go out last night as these are cope what is observed really classic may see both this late hour of. good it. is sucky sucky sucky due to

a for me. what is an art loss register certificate the precious open sesame of the art market a document which states that an object wasn't stolen. founded in london twenty five years ago as a private information service with over four hundred thousand listed objects lost register who owns the largest database of stolen artifacts in the world. for a fee any buyer or seller can ask art loss register to verify that a piece is not listed on its database. these registrations. could also be registration from a museum just in case items ever started on the register them on the database just in case they show up for sale somewhere else and most obvious examples of the surface from the national museum of iraq. in two thousand and three and two

thousand and four. and what was amazing is they were very careful and you can tell it was well because they went into the basement once they'd stolen everything and they destroyed all the documentation for the objects so that people would know what had been stolen unfortunately the major objects have been recorded elsewhere. they can see actually a different words that we've entered just to help bring that up so here they were thrown they were put. braided have perhaps something like that and. in the case of the baghdad museum an inventor really existed so stolen objects could be captured on to the database but in war zones very few museums keep precise invent a reason and there is no way that objects discovered during illegal digs will ever be listed obviously that's incredibly difficult when you're looking it luci don't logical material that has been looted out of the ground if it's taken out of the

ground then potentially the only people that even know of its existence of the people who dug it out. and yet this certificate is widely used on the antiquities market as is the case.