Stolen museum exhibits from Serbia at the auction in Spain on June 3rd!

Twelve exhibits stolen from the Museum of Yugoslav History will be sold on the auction scheduled for June 3rd at Malaga in Spain. According to the discovery of Antidot Media Network, these 12 autograph lots with signatures of famous world statesmen are actually pages from the Josip Broz Tito's Book of Condolence for Foreign statesmen, opened in the House of Flowers in Belgrade. All these written statements were made during their official visits to Belgrade in the 1980s. These 12 lots are only part of a much larger collection of 40 pages that have been cut out and stolen from the Museum of Yugoslav History (MYH). At the time of Antidot's discovery of illegal sale of items that are part of the cultural and historical heritage of the Republic of Serbia, MYH and the Ministry of Culture were not informed that the mentioned items were missing, which is why the theft was never reported to the authorities. 

In the announcement of autographs and manuscripts auction, the following cited pages with statements and authentic signatures of the world leaders to Josip Broz Tito were published: Norodom Sihanouk, the former king of Cambodia, who visited Belgrade on 12 August 1982; Jaobinga Hu, general secretary of the Communist Party of China who visited Yugoslavia on 11 May 1983; Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, who visited Belgrade on June 8, 1983; Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU who is visited the former Yugoslavia 15 March 1988; Nicolae Ceausescu, President of Romania, from 12 November 1987; Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria, who visited Belgrade on 28 April 1982; Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation individual organizations, who visited the House of Flowers on 21 December 1988; Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who was in Belgrade on the occasion of the summit of the Nonaligned Movement September 3, 1989; Mobutu Sese Seko, the former leader of Zaire (now DR Congo), who has visited the grave on 31 March 1988; Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, who visited the former Yugoslavia on 25 May 1985; Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, who signed in Tito's memorial book on 21 June 1983 and George HW Bush, who served as a US Vice President and visited Belgrade on 17 September 1983.

Within the official visit to the capital of Yugoslavia, they all visited the grave site and the memorial room where they signed the book of condolence dedicated to the lifelong former leader of Communist Yugoslavia. Condolence book later became a part of the regular exhibition at the Museum of Yugoslav History, which, according to the agreement on the succession of the former Yugoslav republics, was in the property of the Republic of Serbia. Given that there is no legal possibility for the sale and disposal of museum objects that are owned by the Republic of Serbia, it is clear that the auction scheduled for 3rd June in Malaga will sell cultural assets that were stolen from the Museum of Yugoslav History. The auction is organized by the International Autograph Auctions Europe SL (IAAE) which was founded in 2011 as a subsidiary company of the famous auction house from the United Kingdom International Autograph Auctions LTD.

Special significance of Tito's collection

Although at first glance it may seem that the Condolence book of Josip Broz Tito has no particular financial or emotional value, the fact is that it is a part of the valuable cultural heritage of Serbia and former Yugoslav republics. 

This collection has an even greater relevance considering that Tito, both during his life and today, is worldwide recognized as one of the greatest leaders and politicians of the 20th century. Upon his death, it was unanimously announced that the last of the great winners of the Second World War had departed, the one who stood side-by-side with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle. It is hard to even imagine what would have happened if the Memorial book dedicated to one of the mentioned leaders who marked the history of the 20th century- just went missing and found itself at an auction!

The special value of Tito's collection lies in a unique circumstance that he enjoyed the respect of all the world leaders, both from the democratic countries of the West and the leaders of authoritarian regimes in countries in the East and the so-called Third World countries that made up the Non-Aligned Movement. Thus, Tito's memorial book could include Saddam Hussein, Hafez al-Assad, Indira Gandhi, Yasser Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as George W. Bush, Olof Palme and Margaret Thatcher. What makes this collection so special is precisely the specificity and uniqueness of the mentioned 40 autographs. On the market, this can reach a value of over a hundred thousand euros!

Collecting autographs and records of significant historical figures today, represents one of the very important and valued branches of collectibles, as shown by the examples in the auctions at which some autographs were sold for astronomical figures. For example, one of the most famous cases was a letter by George Washington sold for fantastic $ 3.2 million in December 2009!

One of the most famous European collectors is selling autographs stolen from the Museum of Yugoslav History. The Museum is not aware of the robbery!

In the effort to determine the authenticity of the offered autograph copies, Antidot contacted Francisco Pinero director of IAAE, who told us that the autographs have been consigned to the auction house by a "highly reputed and internationally recognized European expert and collector, owner of one of the best collections of autographs in the world", highlighting that there was no doubt at all about authenticity. He added that this collection "was sold many years ago by a close person to Marshal Tito, a Yugoslavian Politician, and Diplomat". Each of these 40 sheets can reach a sales value of up to several thousand euros at auctions of this kind. 

Referring to the origin of the collection, Mr. Pinero stated that it was sold many years ago by a person close to Tito. The problem, however, lies in the fact that, under current regulations, there is no legal possibility that the pages of the Condolence book, as part of the cultural and historical heritage of the Republic of Serbia, can be alienated from their rightful owner. The apparent discrepancy in Mr. Pinero's explanation is precisely in the fact that these records were created after Tito's death, therefore a time when people close to him, no longer had access to state property, including the artifacts exhibited in the House of Flowers and the Museum of Yugoslav History. This fact also indicates that the current owner of the pages from the Condolence book dedicated to Tito, which is part of the cultural and historical heritage property of the Republic of Serbia, is possibly in possession of forged certificates, which the auction house accepted as authentic.

The Auction's house acceptance of autographs without prior verification is mainly due to the fact that the Republic of Serbia, as the legal owner of the exhibits, has not reported the theft to Interpol. On the other hand, the theft was not reported because the authorities in the former Yugoslavia did not notice that 40 pages are missing from Tito's Condolence book!

In an attempt to determine the way in which the pages of Tito's memorial books ended up at an auction in Spain, Antidot requested an explanation from the officials of the Museum of Yugoslav History. In an interview with our network, Head of the Research and Protection of the Museum Fund, Radovan Cukic, said that the authorities in the museum are not aware of the announced auction, but are also unaware of the fact that the pages from the book are missing from the museum. After we introduced them to the exponents at the auction, Cukić promised to launch an internal investigation into the disappearance of controversial pages with statements of world leaders. However, by the time this article was published, the Editorial Board of Antidot has not received any updates on the potential investigation. Cukic is also said that if confirmed that the pages come from Tito's Condolence book, they will contact the auction house and prevent the scheduled sale. Expressing certain level of reservations about the origin of autograph pages, Cukić told us that "there were other books of this sort in the former Yugoslavia" without specifying which of them were intended for the signatures of foreign statesmen.

In order to remove any doubt that these pages are in fact from the book at the Museum House of Flowers, journalists of Antidot researched all the publicly available sources, which confirmed the dates stated under the signatures of statesmen, fully correspond with their visits to Belgrade, during which according to the official protocol, they visited Tito's tomb and signed the Book, as a way to pay respect to the passed Yugoslav leader.  Therefore, in Belgrade, there was no other book for similar purposes, while the dates under their signatures can only be related to the time when they visited Belgrade and not some other city in the former Yugoslavia. This represents a clear evidence that the stolen pages belong to the book owned by the Museum of Yugoslav History.

Other countries' experiences - fierce struggle for the return of their stolen cultural goods 

Among other things, the struggle for the preservation and return of stolen cultural heritage demonstrates the seriousness and level of development of a country in question - as seen numerous examples worldwide. In order to legally regulate this matter at the international level, UNESCO and UNIDROIT adopted conventions which put the original owner in the spotlight of cultural property protection and therefore stipulated the obligation of the return of property to its rightful owners.

Among the most famous examples of the battle for the return of cultural heritage is the case of Greece and their decades-long fight to bring back to the country parts of Acropolis which were taken to the UK during the Ottoman Empire. The whole art community is familiar with the case of Ionic pillars of the Parthenon, which are currently in the British Museum, and should be returned to Greece. These pillars were legally bought by the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire T. Bruce, known as the Earl of Elgin, between 1799 and 1803 who then sent them to the UK. They are located at the British Museum as its most valuable exhibits, but Greece has been fighting for decades to return them to the country, the only legitimate owner of the ancient cultural heritage.

The example that also caught the attention of the worldwide public is the case of two Dürer paintings, stolen during the Second World War from the Schwarzburg castle, and Raphael's young girls, which the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston bought in Genoa during the 1960s. In both cases, the paintings eventually had to be returned to their rightful owners - the former East Germany, and Italy.

Similar was the fate of the sculptures Afo-A-Kom, one of the most valued spiritual possessions of Cameroon, which mysteriously disappeared, emerged in the US market and was depicted in several American museums as Cameroon art. Faced with the uprising of the entire general public of Cameroon, the US was forced to return the sculpture to Cameroon, in order to avoid a diplomatic scandal. This case was particularly interesting because, in the American public, the issue was seen from the aspect of small material value of the sculpture, whereas for the natives of Cameroon, it had the highest ritual and spiritual value. The representative of Cameroon in connection with the theft said that it was "the heart and soul of Kom tribe in Cameroon and that it was the thing able to connect and unite the nation." Despite a number of sarcastic comments about the "primitive tribe of Cameroon", this case pointed to a general lack of understanding of cultural values to different nations, whose essential character lies in their historical and spiritual, rather than material values.

From recent examples of cultural heritage theft, history notes tens of thousands of antiquities that have disappeared from the territory of Iraq after the intervention of the US-led coalition in 2003. A large number of missing items from the period of 7,000 years old Mesopotamian civilization and among the missing antiques are those of the early Islamic era, from the Sumerian period, from the time of Babylon and the Hellenistic period. Although some of the items are irretrievably gone, thanks to the efforts of a specially formed commission, many antiquities have been returned to Iraq after 2008.

Another country to hold the search for the missing antiquities and cultural property as highly important is Isreal. Their specialized institution for cultural heritage retrieval has particularly been involved in the recovery of items seized from Jews during the Second World War, who have since become part of illegal private collections and often appeared at official auctions of famous auction houses. International public is familiar with the case of stolen silver coins from the Hellenistic period that Israeli Directorate of Antiquities managed to retrieve. They have been found thanks to the regular monitoring of the market where antiques were sold.

The collection of silver plates "SEVSO" and other thefts from the former Yugoslavia 

In the context of the unlawfully stolen cultural property, "SEVSO" case was particularly interesting and in large part associated with the former Yugoslavia. The case involves 14 out of 30 silver plates and other containers produced in the 4th century during the time of Emperor Constantine. The aforementioned invaluable treasure belonged to Lord Northampton, who bought them at an auction in the Sotheby's Gallery in London. In addition to Yugoslavia, the affair also involved the country of Lebanon, whose government claimed that treasure belonged to them, due to forged origin papers. The dispute had been initiated before a court in New York where the valuables were taken for assessment, and the dispute was conluded as theft and illegal export of valuables. Based on the submitted documentation from Yugoslav side, in 1990 a court in New York issued a temporary ban on exports of the treasure in question from the United States until the dispute was resolved. Due to the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the events that followed, the dispute has not been finalized in favor of the legitimate owner of the treasure.

According to press reports at the time of the SEVSO affair, journalists in Belgrade who researched the story discovered numerous other thefts of art from Yugoslavia. At the beginning of 1990, Pozarevac Museum was robbed, as well Museum of Pancevo, from which a highly valuable Weifert numismatic collection of ancient medieval coins was stolen. 

In the armed robbery that occurred in the museum of Novi Sad in January 2006, Rembrandt's and four other valuable pieces of art have been stolen. The other three paintings belong to Dutch and German school and depict the head of Jesus from the 16th century, landscape with a fisherman by an Italian painter and a portrait of Seneca by P.P. Rubens, 16th century Flandria.

In relation to art thefts, the archeological site Viminacium was the explicitly indicated as vulnerable due to the lack of it's protection. According to allegations made in public, the Roman archeological site Viminacium enriched many foreign collections with exhibits sold significantly under their real value. In relation to that, the experts were warning about the fact that it was difficult to make estimates about illegal cultural art trade, since the estimation of value differs in countries of arts' origins and countries where the art was being sold.

Will the country succeed in preventing the sale of stolen art from the Museum of Yugoslav History?

With an intention to prevent the sale of national cultural heritage, Antidot notified the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of its findings. However, until this very moment, no information nor feedback was given by the mentioned institutions on the actions to prevent the auction sale and theft of the exhibits that most probably belong to the Museum of Yugoslav History.

A clear purpose of this story is to prevent the illegal sale and draw the attention of the general public to a better preservation of the country’s cultural heritage. In the light of this, our reporters sent numerous reports to national and international institutions, including the Interpol in Serbia and France, the Ministry of Internal Affairs- Crime Investigation Police Department, the Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments, UNESCO Office, the State Attorney's Office, Directorate for Management of Property, the Serbian Government Legal Department, the President's cabinet, the National Assembly, Committee for Culture at National Assembly and other relevant organizations, in hope that the announced auction is prevented and stolen exhibits returned to the Republic of Serbia.

If Republic of Serbia believes that the perservance and treasuring of national heritage is important for one nations identity, the Government needs to take urgent measures in order to prevent both the trade of stolen museum exhibits and improve the protection system in order for these thefts not to happen in future. The officials are also expected to initiate the investigation on the circumstances related to the theft of exhibits from the Museum of Yugoslav history, which are to appear on the scheduled auction in Spain. Even more so if one takes into account the strange circumstance that the management of Yugoslav History museum wasn’t able to determine whether they lack the stolen pages from the Book of Condolence for four days, as well as their statement that they have not encountered problems of this kind in the past.

To remind the readers, in January 2017 media wrote about the case of a former museum guard who has admitted in court that he stole and sold on the black market items from Tito's collection, which were worth over two million[1]

After the 25th of May, all media in the country and the region reported the news of the theft of national heritage published by Antidot. Museum of Yugoslav History, a day later, published a press release in which it stated, “During the examination of the Condolence Book, it was found that pages with these records are missing. Also examined were the scans of Condolence Books created in 2015, and it was found that the pages with the content offered on auction are missing, so we have a strong reason to believe that these pages were extracted long before”. The conclusion of an internal investigation is that the pages offered at the auction are pages missing from the Condolence Book kept in the House of Flowers Museum. For this reason, Museum wrote to the auction house with a request to halt the announced auction. Editorial Board of Antidot will continue to investigate the case of stolen state property and its sale at auction in Spain. 

Below you can see the other 11 autographs which are to be sold at the auction on June 3d in Malaga: 

[1] http://www.blic.rs/vesti/hronika/skandal-u-beogradu-cuvar-muzeja-bizarnom-metodom-krao-titove-poklone/dr5k5fs