Tuesday, 1 November 2011

One of The Largest Thefts of Archaeological Material in History: Benghazi Treasure, Libya:





At the outset Libyans and their allies prophesied Libya is different from Iraq and promised its archaeological heritage will be safe from prying eyes. But while Libyans still healing their "deepest wounds",  “one of the largest thefts of archaeological material in history" was unfolding before Odysseus' eyes.



(1) : 30 October 2011:

Reuters yesterday wrote a report illustrating the ransacking and looting of Libya's priceless archaeological heritage in Benghazi. Criminals, murderers, thieves, rapists and the lot were freed from prisons early on during the uprising. Robbers, "some would say rats", armed either with jackhammers or claw hammers amidst darkness stormed the bank, as if they knew, and dug a hole as they bored their way through reinforced concrete of the protected bank.

Vaults of rare gold and silver coins, vintage jewellery, ancient marble statuettes, including that of Love-god Cupid, freed open and the inanimate occupants secretly crawled their way to revolutionary Egypt's souks and Europe's privileged dealers of both gray and black markets of the powerful industrial revolution.

At least 8000 (or 7700) pieces were robbed by who-cares who knows who, quickly sold, as if the buyers also knew. The good news is that deep beneath the robbed bank there still remains in a trashed room an untouched vault the robbers failed to seize, leaving behind a chisel jammed between solid steel and coalescent concrete. 



(2) : 31 October 2011:

On the following day of Reuters report, the Art Newspaper (Issue 229, November 2011) wrote in its website: "Interpol confirms Libyan treasure was looted."

The report says that the Benghazi Treasure was stolen from the bank on the 25th of May 2011 and that Interpol had alerted police. Apparently two padlocked second world war military chests and a safe were stored in the vaults of the National Commercial Bank, in Omar al-Mukhtar Street, in the centre of Benghazi; safekeeping 306 pieces of ancient jewellery, 2433 silver coins, 364 gold coins, 4484 bronze coins, and 43 other antiquities including statues of bronze, glass and ivory, embossed heads and a plaque depicting a battle among many other "Things", have gone. 

For some reason, nearly three months after the uprising started in Benghazi, and while the city was awash with NTC forces, SAS and Special Forces, an unauthorised decision was made somewhere in that city, or elsewhere, to move the treasure to another bank nearby Dujal Hotel in Benghazi.

Well, only one chest arrived; the fate of the other containers is presumably known only to the drivers. Italian archaeologist Serenella Ensoli suspects the thieves had moved all the unwanted items to the chest that happen to arrive at its new destination, while all the gold, silver, ancient jewellery and other rare material were driven to their intended destination.

The Benghazi Treasure has never been displayed in Libya. Its contents come from the various archaeological sites and temples in Cyrenaica. It seems that all the finest finds and valuable items ended up in the treasure the Libyans never saw; and therefore is a loss beyond scope.

As if pre-planned armed conflicts go hand in hand with archaeological robberies and human rights abuses, the Benghazi Treasure was shipped to Italy in 1942/1943, during the Italian and allied wars in Libya which the Cyrenaican then heavily resisted. The priceless chests eventually ended up in Val Brenta, in the Dolomites, in May 1944.

Seventeen years later the same treasure was said to have been returned to Libya, although there is no way any one can verify the exact same contents were actually returned - not that that matters so much now after the treasure had disappeared again, during conflict again.

There was no attempt by either the King's or Gaddafi's government to fully document and safeguard the mostly-pagan treasure, and so there it remained in the bank awaiting its obfuscated destiny and intrusive opportunists. The disaster is that most of the finest finds found and discoveries made during the last 50 years or so were also added to the same cursed Treasure of Benghazi, and therefore its final content is well beyond sheer imagination. Only Tantalus perhaps can see what seems to be no more than a well-planned operation - an ill-played illusion.

Whether the robbers were in a hurry or the operation was a selective inside job is hard to say; although Hafed Walada, a Libyan archaeologist from King’s College, in London, suspects the latter. Quoted by the Telegraph he says that the treasure is known only to a very few people and that the robbers had even ignored cash that was in the vaults; while The London Evening Post wrote: "The Benghazi raid had occurred soon after an arson attack on the bank. At first this was believed to have been part of the uprising . . . but it may have been linked to the well organised robbery."

NTC's Fadel Ali Mohammed was the chairman of the archaeology department in Benghazi and did report the operation to the attorney-general on the 2nd of June 2011, as well as he sought assistance from Italy's FM Franco Frattini. However, Hafed Walda was quoted by the London Evening Post to have said that "Fadel Ali Mohammed . . . first raised the alarm with the United Nations heritage watchdog UNESCO in July". *** While The Telegraph says "Libya's National Transitional Council is believed to have kept it quiet for fear of tarnishing their image at a time when they were engaged in a desperate battle for survival against the regime of Col Muammar Gaddafi." ****


  • It's a disaster," said Yussuf Ben Nasr, director of antiquities for the city of Benghazi, Reuters wrote. *
  • British "Libyan antiquities" expert Paul Bennet says it was the biggest theft he has seen.
  • UNESCO's Irina Bukova declared it "one of the largest thefts of archaeological material in history." **
  • But to a son of Satan the whole thing is no more than human nature of insane revenge and biological desire.


* To read Reuters report please follow this link:

** Read Art Newspaper's Report at:

Posted by Temehu at 11/01/2011 03:25:00 PM

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