ATADA Press Releases Page
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ATADA Releases New Collector's Guide to the Law, 08-16-10
ATADA Panel Reports FBI Informant Engaged in Trickery and Deceptive Practices, 08-16-10
PRESS RELEASE 08-16-10
Santa Fe, August 16, 2010
ATADA RELEASES NEW COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO THE LAW
The ATADA Foundation today announced publication of a new 32-page booklet, Native American Art and the Law: A Collector’s Guide.
The booklet contains the fundamental legal information that traders and collectors need to navigate the maze of federal laws affecting in Native American art and artifacts. It outlines the laws and penalties and describes the range of materials that are legal to own and trade.
The booklet gives historical and policy background on the law and is written in user-friendly, non-technical language. It covers the history of collecting Native American artifacts in the U.S. and basic U.S. laws, including ARPA and NAGPRA, that concern arrowheads and points, feathers, ceramics and other materials. It is illustrated with antique photographic details from public and private sources. The text is by New Mexico attorney and author Kate Fitz Gibbon with design by Karen Riley.
The booklet is available for $10.00, plus shipping, from the ATADA Foundation, 82 Madrone Ave., Larkspur, CA 94939.
The ATADA Foundation is a non-profit corporation dedicated to advancing education on tribal art from around the world. The Foundation is largely supported by the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA), a professional organization established in 1988 to set ethical and professional standards for the Native American and international tribal art trade.
The ATADA Foundation’s projects promote recognition of the cultural, historical and aesthetic importance of tribal art by providing grants. These have ranged from small tribal arts projects to grants to major U.S. museums. The Foundation works with community organizations to stop the flow of fakes into U.S. markets. The Foundation also promotes responsible stewardship, transparency, access, and the sharing of information. Another goal is to foster an open dialog between tribal members, archaeologists, collectors, legislators and museums.
ATADA’s website provides a member directory, articles, links, and detailed information on laws and other issues affecting museums, collectors and the trade in tribal art. Visit our website, www.atada.org to find out more about ATADA, view our online resources, or contribute to The ATADA Foundation.
PRESS RELEASE 08-16-10
ATADA PANEL REPORTS FBI INFORMANT ENGAGED IN TRICKERY AND DECEPTIVE PRACTICES
Santa Fe, August 16, 2010
In a dramatic presentation at the Whitehawk Antiques Show in Santa Fe, a panel of art traders and collectors today described federal informant Ted Gardiner’s attempts to snare honest dealers as well as criminals during federal investigations in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico in 2009.
The program was the latest in a series of Art and the Law programs hosted by the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA) and the ATADA Foundation, an educational nonprofit organization. Panelists Robert Gallegos, a tribal art dealer, collector Jim Owens, and restorer Dace Hyatt expressed concerns over how the government handled the investigations and changing interpretations of federal laws protecting archaeological sites and cultural heritage. They also reported that fears caused by aggressive tactics threaten to disrupt both the legal antique and contemporary Indian art and crafts market, key components of the Southwest economy.
A friend of Gardiner’s for almost 20 years, Hyatt said federal authorities should not have relied on a person who had serious financial problems which may have added pressure for Gardiner to create cases. Hyatt explained that Gardiner had reached a low point in his life before agreeing to work as an informant.
"In my opinion, he stooped to levels of misrepresenting the truth, embellishing and lying and that's unfortunate because you would think there would be more checks and balances within the [federal] departments to credit or discredit his statements before they orchestrated an entire two-and-a-half-year sting operation that cost the taxpayers — I would be willing to speculate millions of dollars — to only come up with 26 indictments. That's the travesty," Hyatt said.
Gardiner made more than $335,000 in purchases over two years from people later accused of digging, collecting, selling or trafficking in artifacts taken from federal and tribal lands.
However, Hyatt alleged Gardiner also tried to bait honest collectors by attempting to trick people about the items he was offering to sell. Hyatt said Gardiner offered to sell him artifacts that came from an area known as “the Arizona Strip.” Hyatt declined the offer because he knew the area included parcels of federal land.
Attorney Jim Owens showed a receipt signed by Gardiner stating that the items he was selling to a collector were legally obtained from private land. According to Owens, Gardiner later returned and showed the buyer a map on which he pinpointed the location where they were found. The buyer recognized the land as belonging to the Bureau of Land Management and demanded that Gardiner take the items back. The receipt was marked “returned.” Owens noted that an allegation against another individual claimed material was taken from a cave on “federal land.” Owens then showed an archaeological publication identifying that same cave as being on private property.
Owens said that the rights of honest collectors are trampled when federal agents attempt to trick buyers into purchasing illegal material. Gallegos, a past president of ATADA, said some dealers and collectors don't know the laws and could easily fall into traps like those described by Hyatt and Owens.
Gallegos noted that because federal law allows for the collection of artifacts on private land, some criminals claim their items are legitimate. Enforcing the law has become very difficult. "We have to become partners with the government in helping them impart these laws," he said. "We all have the same goals, we all want to preserve our cultural sites, our cultural resources, but we can no longer have these win-lose situations."
Jim Owens also pointed to contradictions in the laws: the Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) specifically permits arrowhead collecting on the surface of federal lands but a general statute prohibiting theft of federal property is now used to charge collectors who do so with breaking the law. Owens noted a statement by Judge Sherri Hutt (now manager of the National NAGPRA program) in a National Park Service Technology Brief, stating that “as a practical matter, “arrowhead” includes any object that would appear to the common person to be an arrowhead even if it is actually a spear point or a scraper.”
The panel discussed the proper interpretation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Gallegos expressed the ATADA organization position as fully supportive of NAGPRA, recalling his participation as a witness at the original Congressional hearings on the proposed law. Owens read from a statement made by [then] Judge Sherri Hutt before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on April 20, 1999:
“There is no provision in NAGPRA which would require the repatriation of an item for which the possessor holds lawful title. The law expressly avoids creating a “taking: of private property to effectuate a public purpose in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Sacred objects may be individually owned and be subject to alienation pursuant to the property laws of a tribe. Items which are now considered to be cultural patrimony may not have been imbued with such distinction at the time they were separated from the group and are not subject to the requirements of NAGPRA.”
Several panelists expressed concern over the December 2009 Report No. C-IN-MOA-0010-2008 to the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of the Interior, Museum Collections: Accountability and Preservation. The report notes that 78 million items out of 148 million items have not been cataloged and found deficiencies in 38 of the 39 museums visited, from storing items in buildings with broken windows to failure to monitor humidity and temperature in sites where Indian artifacts were stored.
The panel also announced publication of a new guide, the ATADA Foundation’s Native American Art and the Law: A Collector’s Guide, text by Kate Fitz Gibbon, design by Karen Riley. The booklet is available for $10, plus shipping, from the ATADA Foundation, 82 Madrone Ave., Larkspur, CA. 94939.
