Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre is a major new international exhibition opening at the Art Gallery of South Australia in March [2007].

More than 200 precious objects will be on show in the first exhibition to come to Australia from the Louvre in almost two decades.

Art Gallery director Christopher Menz is delighted Adelaide is one of just three cities in Australia — Canberra and Perth are the others — to host the exhibition.

“It’s a great coup for us to have it here,” he said.

“I’ve seen it in Canberra and it is strikingly beautiful and great art. We don’t get to see works of this standard very often and as the bedrock for later European art, it is very significant...”

Includes a video: Journey to the Afterlife, Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre.

Journey to the Afterlife, Adelaide Now, Australia, December 10, 2006.

On Monday the Los Angeles-based J. Paul Getty Museum announced it would return a sixth century B.C. marble statue of a young woman to Greece following claims by the Greek government that the artwork was illegally excavated and taken out of the country without proper authority...

So valuable is the trade in stolen artworks — which includes, but is not limited to ancient pieces — that it is now estimated to be worth almost as much as the drug trafficking industry.

And while the academic association of these objects lends the trade a vague air of greater respectability than many other illegal activities, law enforcement agencies and antiquities experts are unequivocal in labelling it every bit as damaging and criminal as the smuggling of narcotics, weapons or human beings.

"It (the illegal antiquities trade) is tawdry, degrading and immoral," leading British archaeologist Professor Colin Renfrew has declared.

"Antiquities without provenance, lacking an archaeological history or context, have almost certainly been looted, wrenched from their sites by explosives which have destroyed their surrounds. This is a crime against humanity..."

Antiquities smuggling: 'A crime against humanity', Paul Sussman, CNN, USA, December 12, 2006.

An update on Italy's unprecedented stand against museums, collectors, and an international smuggling ring.

In Italy's ongoing pursuit of stolen artefacts — reported here last February with "The Trial in Rome" and followed up in the July / August issue of ARCHAEOLOGY with "Raiding the Tomb Raiders," — American museums are giving back works of art, court cases are plodding along, and at least one private collection has come under scrutiny. As 2006 comes to an end, Italy appears to be on the path to victory, though not without at least one setback, and Greece is following their example...

Italy versus the Illicit Trade, Kirsten Vala, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, December 8, 2006.

No other woman in history has stimulated the imagination of following generations as much as Cleopatra VII: statesmanlike ruler, mother of royal children and femme fatale. She was the lover of both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony; Augustus viewed her as a threat to the Roman Empire and drove her to her death. He attempted to erase all recollection of her, but instead the opposite occurred and the myth of Cleopatra was born. Even today, she remains an object of fascination for painters, writers, musicians and directors.

Kleopatra und die Caesaren , Epoch Times International, Germany, December 11, 2006.

Buceris Kunst Forum: Kleopatra und die Caesaren.