Criminals steal artifacts from museums and mosques, and dishonest dealers market them in Europe, where demand for Islamic art continues to grow, according to Eurasianet.org

Interior Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul
Source: archnet.org

Turkey has become a real center of international trade in stolen works of Islamic art - such data results in the Turkish police. Even the largest mosque in Istanbul, Suleiman had to equip dozens of video cameras at the entrance and put a watchful guard. According to the imam, all the valuable objects in the recently Restored mosque, cataloged, and most expensive - sent to museums.

All these strict security measures - some conducted by the Turkish government program aimed at combating the growing number of thefts of valuable artefacts from Turkish mosques and of museums. Because of the sensational international demand for Islamic Art the number of thefts has recently increased.

«market turnover [of Islamic Art] increased significantly," - says William Robinson (William Robinson) , head of Islamic art and carpets auction house Christie's. According to Robinson's interest in the arts of the Muslim countries began to grow in 1997, when the art market came to Qatar. Since then, growth has continued, and especially active he was in the last two or three year. William Robinson says that the market growth of Islamic art is 30-40 per cent a year - and it's really a giant figure.

Naturally, such a surge of interest in Islamic art could not take advantage of and organized crime. especially gained notoriety famous Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. In the maze of this huge market, which can be called a "city within a city," hides a lot of traders, who for a good price for you will find wonderful works of Islamic art - provided that you not going to ask too many questions about where they came from, says Turkish police investigator Ismail Sahin (Ismail Sahin). «Gangs of three or four people are stealing items from museums, mosques and deliver them to the Grand Bazaar dealers, who have contacts in Europe . The Grand Bazaar you can find the stolen artifacts from all over the Middle East, "- said Sahin. archaeologist by training, he spent a lot of success at the Bazaar raids, so that on their own experience knows the whole system of trade in stolen works of Islamic art.

«often come from Europe, orders for this or that subject. When the conciliator receives such an order, he hired thugs to those stolen necessary thing. It is difficult to deal with it, as in most mosques and even some museums property is not described, there is an appropriate level of protection "- says Ismail Sahin.

Despite his zeal and enthusiasm, Sahin was eventually transferred to work in a suburb of Istanbul, away from the art - Now he has to deal with ordinary crime. He believes that his actions may be too much stirred up a hornets' nest. "Perhaps we are too stir up their frequent raids. In the market run by a lot of influential people", - said the investigator.

Nevertheless, the Turkish police and is divided into data about their progress, particularly in tracking down artifacts illegally exported from the country. According to official statistics, in 2010, was returned to Turkey 68 000 historical artifacts, seized in 5000 persons. The Turkish law convicted of theft of cultural property to the citizens may receive up to twenty years in prison.

own measures to protect the cultural heritage of Turkey shall also local museums and cultural fund. May last year in Istanbul hosted the first international meeting devoted to the problems of illegal removal of historic treasures from the country. The event was organized jointly by the police, the Turkish international art historians and auction houses.

According to Joachim Girliha (Joachim Gierlich), former curator of the Qatar Museum of Islamic Art in the fight against smuggling of cultural values ​​can help social networks, new technologies and, of course, this age-old thing, like human interaction and mutual support. essential to solving the problem is a complete cataloging of museum collections and, if necessary, even the publication of such directories on the Internet, such as Facebook, says Girlikh.

Prepared by Mary Estrova, AI

Source : eurasianet.org , artinvestment.ru