Where the wind is blowing?

It has become commonplace to repeatedly point to the importance of preserving cultural heritage. Government agencies which are charged with monitoring it are, unfortunately, unable to cope. However, responsibility for its loss lies with everyone, from treasure hunters, sellers, and antique dealers to politicians, on both sides of the Ukrainian border as well. The Ukrainian cultural heritage is so called only on a territorial basis, but in its context or origin, it has to do with a number of peoples and cultures, which often have no direct genetic relationship with modern population of Ukraine. The written history of humanity, unfortunately, covers only a relatively short period; besides, it is subjective for a number of reasons and does not cover all the nuances. Therefore, material culture, which archeology studies, is a valuable and constantly updated source that reveals new and unexpected pages of the past. Archeological sites of a country are never uniform, and neither are their identities. This creates their uniqueness that defines their features and gives them a place in the culture of modern nations. This means that we have a collective duty to ensure the preservation of the past, not only to each other and the future, but also to our neighbors.

Here is an example. It was believed for a long time that the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries) contacts between southern Rus’ and Scandinavia were of a limited nature. Everyone knows that the Vikings came to Rus’ as traders and mercenaries, and they are described as such in written sources. Judging from the same sources, these contacts were more widespread in what is now northwestern Russia, while the southern lands saw fewer Scandinavians, they were here mostly on a temporary basis, and those who stayed quickly assimilated, losing touch with their homeland. Such is our historical account. Now, let us look at archeological finds. Over the past 20 years, the number of archaeological finds of Scandinavian origin has grown tremendously in Ukraine. We can say now that incomers from Scandinavia included not only male warriors, but also women, children, and entire families. Such finds occur not only in the Chernihiv and Kyiv regions, but also in locations quite unimaginable and very distant from major trade routes. They include not only weapons and jewelry, but whole hidden treasures which are extremely unusual in their composition. Quite unexpectedly, we have found Scandinavian items dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, which indicate continuing active contacts between Rus’ and northern Europe at this time. Each new find is valuable because it adds a new point on the historical map and brings new information to the fore which not only enriches, but may well change our established notions of the past. Therefore, one can only describe as an all-European disaster those large-scale illegal excavations and antiquities sales which are taking place in Ukraine and resulting in Scandinavian and other antiquities being openly sold abroad.

On April 9, 2015, the Ukrainian auction house Violity put on sale a very rare item – an 11th-century bronze figurine of a beast, ornamented in the Ringerike style (the latter is named after a church in Norway which is decorated with carvings using this motif).

This figurine (see photos 1-2) is a decorative element the likes of which once adorned the vanes of ship masts, and came to adorn Early Medieval Scandinavian church spires afterwards. It is most similar to the vanes that once adorned the churches in Sodertalje in the Swedish province of Halsingland and Heggen in the Norwegian county of Buskerud.

Scholars still argue about the function of these rare objects, and the Ukrainian find would certainly create a true sensation and be worthy of taking place in any Ukrainian museum. But the drama of the situation lies in the fact that it will probably never happen, because this unique item was sold at a British auction for 14,880 pounds in September of that same year (photo 3).

Despite the fact that according to the accompanying information, it was a property of a German collector which he bought in the 1990s, there is no doubt that this is actually the illegally exported from Ukraine item found during an illegal excavation in the Skvyra raion of the Kyiv oblast (photo 4).

The question arises: how did this object manage to legally cross the border of Ukraine and get to Germany (as stated on the auction’s webpage)?

The TimeLine Experience British auction has already become notorious for its specialization in the sale of antiquities, many of them coming from Iraq, Syria or the neighboring territories. The auction profits by charging the buyer a 24 percent fee as well as taking an 18 percent commission from the seller. A critical analysis of the activities of this auction of antiquities can be found at the webpage of well-known researcher of trafficking in cultural objects Neil Brodie (marketmassdestruction.com).

It would not be superfluous to recall here that in 2006, motivated by the ever-increasing concern over the scale of the online antiquities market, UNESCO, INTERPOL, and ICOM adopted a joint instruction that urges buyers of archeological objects to check the legality of such transactions under existing national and international laws. In other words, if the buyer does not want to become an accomplice of crime (and the fact of illegal purchase is clearly evident in the present case), all such transactions need to be accompanied by a legal document certifying their legality. At the slightest doubt, it is recommended to contact the relevant organization in the buyer’s home country or UNESCO, INTERPOL, or ICOM. As far as I know, in Germany, just like in the US, any sale of an antique object requires a document certifying it has crossed the border legally¹. And here, I would like to have a look at the document which accompanied the Ukrainian find.

This precedent will certainly not go unnoticed. I, in turn, will alert my Swedish colleagues to make this story as prominent as possible, but we need to get Ukraine’s relevant agencies as well to take a clear and comprehensible stance on the protection and illicit circulation of items that have not just national, but universal cultural value.

 Fedir Androshchuk, Doctor of Sciences in History, is an expert on the Early Medieval history and archeology of Rus’ and Scandinavia

¹ G. Wessel ‘Dealers and Collectors, Provenances and Rights: Searching for Traces’, in F. Desmarais (Ed.) Countering Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods. The Global Challenge of Protecting the World’s Heritage (Paris, 2015), P. 17.