Looters plunder Peru's antique treasures

Submitted by coldrum on Saturday, 07 April 2007 Page Views: 1782

Smugglers are sapping Peru's ancient heritage, with statues, gold finery and other treasures stolen to meet orders on the Internet or sold on the street.

According to Peruvian and international authorities, Peru is the country worst hit in the region by thefts of ancient objects -- far more than Bolivia and Mexico, two other nations with a heritage of pre-Colombian antiquities, an Interpol official here, Eladio Zamudio, recently told AFP.

The international police agency is investigating several cases of stolen art objects from Peru which have passed through the country's porous borders to end up in Europe, the United States and elsewhere in South America.

The head of the National Culture Institute, Cecilia Bakula, has denounced "the organized gangs that are rampant not only in drugs but in stealing cultural heritage."

In one symbolic case, police in March caught thieves trying to sell an old flag to an antiquarian in Lima. It was the same one the Peruvian leader Jose de San Martin had used when proclaiming independence from Spain in 1820.

The western South American nation is rich in antiquities from before the Inca empire, which ruled much of the region for hundred of years up to the 16th century, as well as artworks dating from the subsequent Spanish colonial times.

Its soil yields numerous fossils and archaeological finds -- many of which are looted by so-called huaqeros, smugglers who swoop on remote sites at night. This carries a five-year jail term but looters often get away with a fine.

Authorities say they lack the power and the resources to fight back. "It's difficult to guard more than 10,000 archaeological sites," said Blanca Alva, the institute's official in charge of defending heritage. Among Peru's private museums, some 300 do not have their holdings inventoried, she added.

Orders for objects also come from the Internet, Interpol said. A museum near Lima removed from its displays a wooden statue of the mythological god Pachacamac, fearing it would be stolen after offers to buy it were made online.

The stolen goods are trafficked far afield. Several years ago an altar weighing almost half a ton disappeared from the church of Challapampa in the southeastern city of Puno and was smuggled across the Bolivian border. It wound up in a Texas art gallery, but was returned when Peruvian authorities intervened.

For more, see this article.

Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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