Travis Simpkins: "The Medici Conspiracy" by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini

"The Medici Conspiracy"

by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini

Public Affairs, 2006

Brief Review by Travis Simpkins

Though the judge's gavel has long since fallen on many aspects of the Medici case, newly discovered looted antiquities keep coming to light, and The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini remains a definitive text on the early elements of the investigation. Tracing the journey of looted artifacts from the point they are taken from the ground by tombaroli (tomb robbers), through the shrewd hands of clandestine dealers, to the world's most renowned museums… Watson presents a portrait of a troubling global network of illicit trade.

The veil was lifted in the mid-1990's, when the Geneva Freeport warehouse of Italian dealer Giacomo Medici was raided by authorities. Inside, in addition to shelves full of both cleaned and recently excavated artifacts, they found albums full of incriminating polaroid photographs. The photos, obviously taken after the UNESCO Act of 1971, showed dirt encrusted antiquities in various stages of restoration. The profound observation being that many of the illegally excavated objects in the photos were now in the display cases of famous museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In the text, Watson names the key players in the trade, including Giacomo Medici, Robin Symes, Robert Hecht, Marion True, Dietrich von Bothmer and Pietro Casasanta. Much attention is given to the years-long investigation and repatriation of the objects. The lengthy courtroom passages, minute details and legal terminology can be tiresome, but are not obtrusive to the overall message of the tome. The book successfully imparts the stance that the illegal excavation of objects, ripped from the earth and removed from context, robs the world of the history of the places in which they were created. The fact that respected cultural institutions fuel the desecration by purchasing artwork known to be looted further compounds the problem. In it's 357 pages, the book does a thorough job of presenting the facts behind the ill-gotten treasures.