I have a new Blog on WordPress dealing with my own art and the convergence of my work with my “day job” as owner of Clio Ancient Art and Antiquities, which you all know from this Blog here on WordPress. The first few articles have been published. Here’s the link – https://pastpresentartsandcrafts.wordpress.com/
In January of this year I wrote a brief article for this Blog dealing with my own experiences as both a dealer in ancient Mediterranean art and an artist myself, and the influence one has upon the other. The article was inspired by an exhibition that was a collaboration between the British Museum and Turner… Read More A Confluence of Art, Ancient and Modern
As an artist myself (yes, I have come to accept, to my own astonishment, that in addition to being an antiquities dealer / antiquarian / art historian, I am, at last, an artist) I often find myself influenced, even if sometimes subliminally, by the ancient and medieval art and artifacts I handle every day (see… Read More A breakthrough moment in the modern interpretation of antiquities
A few proposals floated in the final months of 2015 offered rational, practical options for saving antiquities and ancient monuments.… Read More Rational Proposals for Safeguarding Antiquities – But Will Anyone Act?
With Islamic State on the rampage, and other groups swearing allegiance to them in Libya, Tunisia, Nigeria, Yemen and Afghanistan, the threat to ancient heritage is greater than ever, and the debate over whether or not to return antiquities, looted or legally exported, to the modern nation states where they were discovered is fiercer than ever.… Read More Making Matters Worse? The Debate Over “Repatriating” Antiquities to Failed States in the Middle East
A BBC online feature entitled “The men who smuggle the loot that funds IS”, 16 February, 2015, opens with the following remarkable claim: “The trade in antiquities is one of Islamic State’s main sources of funding, along with oil and kidnapping.” At no point in the dozen or so paragraphs that follow does author Simon… Read More Sensationalist Reporting and the Antiquities Trade: If it’s in Print it Must be True!
This is not completely confirmed yet but ISIS had been claiming for some time they would do this. They clearly wish to erase any traces of ancient Assyrian heritage from their self styled caliphate. Here’s the Iraqi news item (open in a new tab or page): http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/isis-detonates-large-parts-nineveh-historical-wall/
The recent decision by The British Museum to send a single sculpture from the famed Parthenon Marbles (or Elgin Marbles) on loan briefly to the Hermitage in Russia, causing outrage in Greece, has once again drawn attention to issues of cultural heritage relating to antiquities. Whatever the merits of the arguments put forward by those… Read More Greek Antiquities in the British Museum, London
This is a truly amazing piece of research with broad implications. The international team involved plans next to determine if these trade routes for valued materials continued into the later Bronze Age and beyond. Here is the article in the online journal ScienceNordic.com, including a link to the original research in Danish (opens in a… Read More NEWS ITEM: Danish Bronze Age glass beads traced to Egypt
The deeply troubling damage caused to antiquities and ancient monuments in the Near and Middle East, particularly Egypt, Syria and Iraq, as a result of war, insurgency, neglect, looting and deliberate destruction at the hands of religious fanatics is a subject I have addressed in this Blog before. It is likely to remain very much… Read More Some Iconic Near Eastern Antiquities in The British Museum
Clio Ancient Art & Antiquities 
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