Research
The ongoing provenance research project into the archaeological collections of the Allard Pierson has demonstrated that a number of antiquities in its possession can be linked to international art dealers that have been either convicted or suspected of illicit trafficking of cultural heritage. During his fellowship, Christos Tsirogiannis will delve deeper into the provenance of a selection of 68 antiquities by checking their potential appearance in archives that have been confiscated from various dealers of illicit antiquities. Furthermore, he will scrutinize their provenance histories, as detailed by the art dealers at the time of acquisition. Photographic and archival evidence will be collected from both institutional and illicit sources, from which he will then attempt to reconstruct, in close collaboration with the provenance research team at the Allard Pierson, the networks of interaction between all actors involved.
Fellow
Dr Christos Tsirogiannis is a forensic archaeologist specialising in research of international trafficking networks of antiquities and the antiquities trade. He has authored many publications on various aspects of the market, has advised museums, collectors and several governments in reform of cultural heritage law and worked with many police, judicial and cultural authorities, identifying dozens of illicit antiquities and contributing to their repatriation to 13 countries so far. He is now an expert at the Swiss Federal Office for Culture.