BFF-10 Looters plunder Albania’s sunken treasures

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ALBANIA-HISTORY-CULTURE

Looters plunder Albania’s sunken treasures

VLORA, Albania, Nov 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Albania’s long underexplored
coastal waters have become a hotspot for treasure hunters scooping up ancient
pottery, sunken ship parts and other shell-encrusted relics that have lain on
the seabed for centuries.

The 450-kilometre (280-mile) coastline, which is lapped by the Adriatic and
Ionian seas, was off-limits under the communist regime which ruled the Balkan
state until 1990, with orders to shoot anyone caught diving without
authorisation.

But today its waters are open, luring archaeologists but also looters eager
to plumb the new territory and sell their finds on the art and metals
markets.

“Much of this wealth resting at the depth of 20-30 metres (66-99 feet) is
easily accessible without any special equipment and has almost completely
disappeared without a trace,” said Albanian archaeologist and art historian
Neritan Ceka, among those calling for urgent measures to protect the
underwater heritage.

While diving at the beginning of the 1980s — under communism,
archaeologists and soldiers were permitted — he was one of the first to see
for himself the seabed treasures, he said.

“I saw extraordinary richness, amphoras (terra-cotta jugs), pottery,
archaeological objects which are no longer there today,” he added.

Teams of European and Albanian divers “have started to loot in a barbaric
way”, he lamented.

– ‘Big profits’ –

Expeditions carried out since 2006 by the US-based RPM Nautical Foundation
have found some 40 shipwrecks along Albania’s coastline, including vessels
dating back to the 7th century BC and naval ships from World War I and II.

Hundreds of Roman-era amphoras — used to store wine, olive oil and other
goods on trade vessels — are also clustered on the sea floor, covered in
marine plants.

Experts say that without a full inventory, it is impossible to know how
many of the artifacts have been plucked from the seabed and sold on the
international art trafficking market.

The market overall generates a global turnover of more than $4 billion (3.5
billion euros) a year, according to Auron Tare, who chairs UNESCO’s
scientific and technical advisory body on underwater cultural heritage.

“But what is certain: a treasure hunt below the seas can bring in big
profits,” said Moikom Zeqo, an underwater archaeologist who helped discover a
2nd-century BC Roman ship carrying hundreds of amphoras.

– Art and steel –

The vases can be sold for up to 100 euros in Albania, where they are on
display in some high-end restaurants, or auctioned for much greater sums in
London and other art capitals.

Other prized discoveries have been ferried home by foreign divers and
placed in various private museums around the world, such as the bell of an
ill-fated Austro-Hungarian ship, the SS Linz, that sunk off Albania’s
northwest coast with 1,000 passengers on board after striking a mine in March
1918.

“These objects (from the SS Linz), exhibited in a private museum in
Austria, must be returned to Albania,” said Tare, who also heads the Albanian
Center for Marine Research.

Divers are also going underwater to strip early 20th century warships for
their high-quality steel.

Steel produced before any nuclear explosions happened in the world is
especially lucrative, as it lacks any trace of radioactivity and can be used
for sensitive medical devices and other scientific equipment.

“To skin the hull and remove it from the seabed, the looters use dynamite,”
said Ilir Capuni, a researcher and professor at the University of New York
Tirana.

He has seen the plunder firsthand.

Back in 2013, Capuni helped discover a Hungarian-Croat steamer, the
Pozsony, that sunk off the coast of Durres in 1916 after striking a mine.

But four years later, “we found that there was almost nothing left of it,”
said Capuni.

A similar fate has befallen the Italian medical ship Po, which was struck
by a British torpedo in 1941 off the coast of southeastern Vlore. Benito
Mussolini’s daughter Edda Ciano, who was aboard the ship as a nurse,
survived.

Its algae-covered hull was miraculously intact when it was first discovered
but has since been dismantled in places and emptied of valuable objects, such
as the bell, compass, telegraph, lights and dishes.

Bought firsthand for 5,000 euros, some parts have been resold since to
collectors for 20 times that amount, Capuni said.

– Underwater museum –

In June, authorities passed a law classifying the shipwrecks as cultural
monuments and requiring strict licensing for diving teams.

Police are also working with Interpol to trace and return stolen objects,
said criminal police director Eduart Merkaj, although so far there have been
no concrete results.

One dream shared by Albanian and foreign experts is to create an underwater
museum, such as the one that exists in the Turkish city of Bodrum, that would
protect the artifacts and draw tourists.

“The time has come to build an underwater museum, laboratories and a
specialised centre,” says Luan Perzhita, director of Albania’s Archaeological
Institute.

But the high costs of such a project remain a barrier, with only 30,000
euros allotted in the state budget this year for archaeology.

“Albania has never had the luxury or awareness to understand the great
importance that this wealth represents for the country’s history and for
Mediterranean civilisation,” said Tare.

Even though, he added, the waters still contain “more treasures that have
not yet been discovered”.

BSS/AFP/GMR/0957 hrs