Script - Ref 317 Antiques Smuggling
Washed by the waters of three different seas, Turkey has always been a place for wayfarers from East and West.
Adventurers, crusaders and conquerors they left behind the remains of some of history's greatest civilisations.
Founded in the 5th century BC, the city of Simena was a jewel in the crown of three ancient empires. Lycian, Roman and Byzantine. Today, it is hard to see past the ruins of medieval times, but each era has left its mark - often buried deep beneath the earth.
Simena is just one of thousands of ancient cites scattered across Turkey. A country which boasts more ancient Greek settlements than Greece, more Roman ruins than Italy. This country is built – layer upon layer - on the remains of a great civilisation. Which makes Turkey an archaeologist’s treasure trove, and a plunderers paradise.
1.41 section needs transl
Sami Gulena prides himself on being one of the best in a bad business – smuggling.
These are the objects of desire – the remains of ancient Turkey which today are quite often worth their weight in gold. These relics are from Perge – a 2000 year old city in the south of the country, which over the years has had its fair share of looting.
A walk through Perge is a walk through the ages. This was a city colonised by Greeks after the Trojan war. Visited by Alexander the Great and Paul the Apostle. A centre of sculpture and urban planning during the golden days of the Roman Empire.
3.1 section needs translating
For Professor Habouk Abosoulou, the man in charge of Perge's excavations, every discovery is a triumph of tenacity over austerity.
3.20 section needs translated
These people work for love – not money. All the government could afford for the three month summer dig was $6000. But if uncovering artefacts is a struggle, protecting them is even harder.
4.1 section needs trans
This is the turnstile for Turkey's smuggled treasures – Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. Behind the dazzling displays is a multimillion dollar market in antiquities. This is where the smugglers come to offload their bounty. From here, the artefacts usually follow a well-worn path through Bulgaria to Germany, where they are laundered before reaching their final destinations.
5.14 sections needs translating
There are many obstacles facing Turkey's anti-smuggling police. They have few officers, primitive resources, and a huge brief. Across the country are hundreds of prime raiding sites. Archaeological digs, open air galleries and museums without even an inventory of their artefacts. Still, the police boast a high strike rate.
6.1 sections needs translating
And how much of the overall traffic do you believe you are able to intercept?
Translating
It seemed an incredible success rate. So we went looking for the inside story. We found it in Mughla prison, South-west Turkey. The prison director was taking us to meet Sami Gulena – a smuggler turned informant, in jail on an unrelated charge of counterfeiting. A man regarded by criminals and police alike, as a latter-day Houdini. The transporter who could make any artefact, no matter how cumbersome, disappear across the border.
At first camera shy, Sami eventually did have something to say. For starters,
there was no way the police were intercepting 95% of smuggled antiques.
Tranlating
According to Sami, many smuggled artefacts eventually end of in the auction rooms of prestigious London art houses, Christie's and Sotheby's.
Translating
Trying to retrieve the treasures after they have skipped the country is the latest step in Turkey's antiquities campaign. There are currently 6 court cases underway in Europe and America. The Perge collection, now houses in the Antalia museum, has benefited form Turkey's tough stance.
This is the garlanded sarcophagus – a stone coffin dating back to the 2nd century AD. It is recognised around the world as the finest example of its type. It was unearthed in Perge in the early 80s, but mysteriously disappeared, only to resurface in 1987 at the Brooklyn Museum. It wasn't until 1994, after 7 years of wrangling, threats and counter-threats, that the sarcophagus finally made it home. This is one of Turkey's great success stories. But unfortunately only one of the few.
Perge's most famous son – weary Hercules – has not been so fortunate. Antalia museum has only the bottom half of this prized statue. A Roman copy of a Greek Hercules. The top half resides in the US. Owned jointly by the Boston Museum, and private collectors Leon Levy and Shelby White. The latest targets in Turkey's campaign.
And you don't happen to know how the top half of Hercules made it to Boston do
you?
Translation
I am sick to feel that my best statue is in two pieces, in different continents and museum collections. I want to see it before I die – the two pieces come together.
Dr Jalay Inan – the matriarch of Turkey's archaeologists – unearthed the bottom part of Hercules in 1980. The top half wasn't discovered until a year later. In America. It's owners claimed it bore no resemblance to the statue in Turkey. But Dr Inan believed otherwise. After a ten yaer struggle, plaster casts were made of the two portions and – evr so slowly – brought together. It was a perfect fit. Today however – four years later – Herculese still stands divided.
It was found in Turkey, and this is the best copy of the Hercules in the world. And I will be so happy when I see them together.
Until the recent change of government here, professor Engen Ersgen was director of museums and monuments. The person who sent in the lawyers to bring Turkey's treasures home. He believes artefacts are the jigsaw pieces of history, and the puzzle will never be complete until all are joined together in Turkey. Hence, the Herculean battle for Hercules.
We tried most friendly way to solve the problem. But they still insist that they are not going to return it. That leaves only one solution open – that is to go to the courts. We have instructed our lawyers to do that.
Is it really fair, for someone who has bought something in good faith, to have Turkey knocking on the door and saying, hey, we want it back now.
According to our law, antiquities cannot leave the country, So if they have left the country, it must have been illegal.
But for those who have already bought an artefactto give it up.
If I were them, I could return it, with great fanfare, to Turkey, OK? So then they willrecevie a red carpet treatment from us. They will be our eternal guests in Turkey – its worthwhile I think.
It's still not a Roman head in the lounge is it?
No but our main aim was, in 1992, to put a halt to the smuggling and the plundering of arts objects. But to put a stop is very optimistic – there is no way you can put an end to money.
Money, or rather the lack of it, is often what motivates farmers to till Turkey's soil for artefacts. The first link in the smuggling chain. Here in Perge, along the edge of the old city walls, there's no shortage of relics for the taking.
Translating
Adnan Choban is finding it hard to farm. He keeps turning up tombs.
Translating
That makes a total of 7 tombs and one statue. Most of the fins have been turned over to the museum for a few hundred dollars. But some haven't. Adnan's uncle – Suleiman – is a convicted looter. But he and his neighbours say they are just honest farmers, trying to make a living. A living which might have been quite handsome indeed, were Suleiman not found which a dump truck full of sand, and a stone tomb in the bottom.
Translating
The biggest battle for Turkey, in safeguarding its riches it seems convincing its own people that their heritage is worth holding onto. But that won't happen while international buyers continue to pay exorbitant prices for turkey's black market artefacts.
If you are not able to reduce smuggling significantly, what does that meant for Turkey and its heritage?
If the interest continues in the same pace, I am afraid that Turkey will be empty within a century.
Have you found anything?
No only this part, but it could be important.
As Turkish lawyers fight their way through the international courts, seeking a return of their nations' antiques, out here in Perge, their real work continues. Whether gold, clay or glass, every discovery here is a treasure. Not only for turkey's history but the heritage of humankind.