“It’s our job to make underwater cultural heritage more accessible” Time and again, news of spectacular looting or “treasure salvage” of improperly recovered shipwrecks reaches the public. We spoke to Ulrike Guérin, the program specialist responsible for the Underwater Cultural Heritage Program at UNESCO, about illegal looting and commercial salvage. We wanted to know from her how the […]

“It is our task to make the underwater cultural heritage more accessible”

Time and again, news of spectacular looting or “treasure recoveries” of improperly salvaged shipwrecks reach the public. We spoke to Ulrike Guérin, the program specialist responsible for the Underwater Cultural Heritage Program at UNESCO, about illegal looting and commercial salvage. We wanted to know from her how the underwater heritage can be better controlled and protected.

“Treasure hunting” is a big problem for science and for all of us. In general, however, a distinction should be made between two cases: On the one hand, the illegal plundering of wrecks and, on the other, their commercial, state-authorized exploitation. The UNESCO Convention of 2001 prohibits both and allows contracting states to confiscate objects resulting from looting or commercial salvage. It also allows criminal prosecution for the destruction of cultural property.

Please give us an example of illegal looting.

In 2007, 17 tons of artifacts were looted from the Spanish Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes wreck, which sank in 1804. The majority of these were coins. Spain and Portugal, in whose waters the wreck was located, have ratified the UNESCO Convention.

It has helped both countries to make a clear decision on how to react in this case. Spain, the owner of the wreck, very quickly initiated legal proceedings in the USA. The coins were brought back to Spain at great expense and are now part of a magnificent exhibition. Portugal and Spain are very committed to the principles of the 2001 Convention and encourage other countries to implement them.

Which wreck was commercially exploited?

Between 2004 and 2007, around 500,0000 artifacts from the 10th century Indonesian Cirebon wreck were recovered for sale. About half of these were deliberately destroyed as they were deemed “not good enough for the market”. There was also a fear that the local population would sell them anyway, which could have created some market competition. The remaining items were badly damaged due to improper storage and lack of conservation, as a UNESCO mission to the site in 2007 found. All in all, an incredible destruction of a magnificent wreck find.

Commercial exploitation – so this happens more often?

Unfortunately yes, the same team of treasure hunters that plundered the Cirebon wreck is currently planning to exploit another wreck from the Song Dynasty period, again in Indonesia. Incidentally, the team also has significant German involvement.

What does that mean?

Neither Indonesia nor Germany have ratified the UNESCO Convention yet. However, Germany is planning to do so this year. This means that the German “treasure hunters” could be prosecuted and artifacts from other commercially exploited wrecks that have already been brought to Germany could be confiscated. There are many of them.

Is anyone keeping an eye on these “treasure hunters” who commercially exploit or loot wrecks?

Yes, the Scientific Advisory Board of the 2001 UNESCO Convention, for example, is waging a particularly effective battle. This “Blue Helmet” group for underwater cultural heritage comprises twelve recognized underwater archaeologists. Last year, for example, it reviewed “treasure hunter” work in Panama and Madagascar and was able to help governments to better defend themselves against such activities.

How can you imagine this?

Our experts, accompanied by legal and conservation experts, went to these countries and dived to the respective sites. As neither Panama nor Madagascar have underwater archaeologists, this was a great help. We were able to correct misidentifications of artefacts and the wrecks themselves and exposed the flagrant violations of scientific standards of archaeology in both cases. The comprehensive and very exciting reports are available on our website.

A general control of underwater heritage is surely difficult?

As with land heritage, of course, not everything can be controlled at all times. Just as the coast guard checks for smuggling, among other things, it can also monitor underwater heritage sites by means of satellite checks and patrols. Of course, this requires good cooperation with specialized archaeologists, of which there are still far too few, and international cooperation under the 2001 UNESCO Convention. A good knowledge of the treasure hunters’ sales channels is also a great advantage. A special conference on this topic is planned for September 2016 at UNESCO.

What else could be done to protect underwater heritage?

The public will only be more committed to protection if the plundering of cultural heritage really is a loss for all of us and we are aware of this. A huge problem of underwater cultural heritage is its relative “invisibility”, because not all of us are divers. A major task for the coming years is therefore to make underwater cultural heritage more accessible. For example, we are planning 3D projects, a UNESCO underwater cultural heritage route and regional excellence projects in which we want to show how much underwater cultural heritage is part of our identity and history.

The interview was conducted by Alexandra Nyseth.

We will be covering the topic of underwater cultural heritage in detail in RESTAURO 4/2016, which you can read here from June 10, 2016.