Oded Golan Acquitted of Forgery, Convicted of Antiquities Trafficking

[livius drusus]

Well, after seven years on trial, a Jerusalem District Court judge returned a mixed verdict against "James Ossuary" pimp Oded Golan: not guilty on the forgery charges, guilty on four counts of violating laws against the traffic in antiquities and possession of stolen property. The judge basically threw up his hands and said it was not possible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt whether the "James, brother of Jesus" inscription was forged, but he made a point to underscore that in no way was the court declaring the inscription authentic either.

We have an old thread on the saga here which features Clutch Munny's excellent correspondence with the Royal Ontario Museum who displayed the ossuary pretty much as soon as it made the news and just a few months before the Israeli Antiquities Authority declared it a fraud and arrested Oded. Read that and then read this article in which the museum's director of collections management merrily rewrites history fronting like they were just teaching the controversy instead of actively supporting the authenticity of the inscription.

Bah humbug. There is a silver lining, though.

Responding to the ruling, the [Israeli Antiquities] Authority said that the highprofile case had had many positive results, including almost completely stopping the antiquities market from publishing finds without first knowing their place of discovery; almost entirely halting the trade in written documents and seals from illicit excavations; and dramatically reducing the scope of antiquities robbery.

alert!

See, this is why source countries have been going after museums and collectors who have been dealing in stolen and looted antiquities for decades in contravention of the UN Convention and tons of national laws prohibiting illegal export of cultural property. Because it fucking works. Even if you don't get a specific artifact back, even if the trials drag on for a decade and only end when the statute of limitations runs out, even if there's no ultimate conviction, putting some heat on these weasels has a perceptible effect on the overall traffic in loot.