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WORLD MARKETPLACE NEWS with Managing Editor Judy Gonyeau

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s THE U.S. SUN – Peter Taylor, 61, is said to
culture minister has hit out have posted flyers and business cards through
at foreign auctions of pre- the letterboxes of “elderly and vulnerable”
Hispanic artefacts, saying residents at plush addresses in Kensington
her nation’s heritage “is and Chelsea in West London, in order to
not for sale.” Two French drum up business. One victim lost more than
auctions of pre-Hispanic $135,000 after agreeing Taylor could auction
pieces are the latest to anger his furniture, but never passed on the proceeds
President Obrador’s govern- of the sale, while another lost $81,000 jurors at
ment, which says the items were obtained illegally. “According to Mexican Isleworth Crown Court were told. Over a three-
law, any piece of national heritage that is permanently outside the coun- year-period between March 2016 and
try, not temporarily for an exhibition or cultural cooperation, comes February 2019, Taylor allegedly posed as a valuer from Chelsea Auction
from an illegal act,” she added. In July, Mexico and France signed a dec- House—a well-established dealer in the area—to hoodwink his victims.
laration of intent to strengthen their cooperation in the fight against While some victims got some money back, none had allowed him to sell
trafficking in cultural property. Mexico had called for the cancelation of their possessions in the first place, the court heard. Mr Taylor, from
the auction of 40 objects by the Artcurial house in Paris that nevertheless Wandsworth in South West London, denies all 14 counts of fraud.
went ahead, as well as another by Christie’s. The illicit trade in cultural
goods generates nearly $10 billion each year, according to UNESCO.
TOYSMATRIX.COM – A forgotten
historic African American cemetery in
WEST VIRGINIA – Restorations have begun on a historic hotel in Halfway, MD has been hiding almost
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that has sat empty and dilapidated for in plain sight, tucked away near homes
more than a decade. The Hill Top House Hotel has stood above Harpers on Clinton Avenue. Nearly 10 years
Ferry for more than 130 years with a view few can resist. Its vista looks out ago, historian and former Hood
over three states and two rivers. “The College professor, Dr. Emilie Amt,
history was so emotional, so mean- thought the Halfway Colored
ingful. It got us stuck to it,” Cemetery was lost forever. What she
co-owner Fred Schaufeld said. “A didn’t know was that the cemetery was
place where anyone who is any- sold and split up into different lots, which have since been built over,
body on the East Coast came, from leaving only a portion intact but in extreme disrepair. The cemetery was
Mark Twain, to Carl Sandburg, used predominately by the African American churches in Hagerstown
Alexander Graham Bell, and all the up until the 1930s. “We do have 155 names of people buried here, but
presidents.” The couple says they've more than 400 people were buried here.” Work is underway to restore this
done their best to save as many of the old artifacts from the hotel as possible, once forgotten historic African American cemetary by continuing
including an old parlor piano and a mirror that survived two fires in the early research and working with the community.
1900s, twice destroying the hotel.

ROME – Pompeii archaeologists
EXPRESS, U.K. – Antique dealer said they have unearthed the
Paul Fitzsimmons bought a wooden remains of a “slave room,” an
bird from an auction for $100 in exceptionally rare find, at a Roman
2019 and discovered it belonged to villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius'
Tudor Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.
of England from 1533 to 1536. The The little room with three beds, a
second wife of Henry VIII, she was ceramic pot and a wooden chest was
famously executed for treason by discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just
beheading in 1536. The piece is a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city. The 170-square foot
estimated to be worth around room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three
$269,000. The antique dealer is set to give the 16th century artifact to beds—one of which was child sized—there were eight amphorae, stashed in
Hampton Court Palace. Paul Fitzsimmons told CNN: “It is really quite a corner. The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be
an incredible find because all her emblems were removed from the palace, part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found
and nothing survived.” resting on one of the beds.

REALITYBLURRED.COM REVIEW – Swap Shop the Netflix show JERUSALEM – An Israeli court issued an injunction to halt the auction
focuses on the Swap Shop program on of tattoo stamps used by Nazis on Jewish and other inmates of
Rogersville, TN, radio station WRGS, Auschwitz, following an appeal from a Holocaust survivor group.
which calls its version “World Famous Tzolman’s Auctions, a Jerusalem seller, had listed eight original tattoo
Swap Shop.” Production company Hit stamps of digits used to brand inmates at the notorious Auschwitz-
+ Run has solved the problem of mak- Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
ing audio into video by producing a The Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors
show that essentially ignores the radio (COHS) in Israel filed a request that the sale be frozen.
show and, as a bonus, rarely feels Attorney David Fohrer wrote in the appeal: “Such
authentic. Ultimately, Swap Shop the an evil item can’t have an owner … Its sale is illegal
radio show is a flimsy excuse for what we’re actually watching, which are and goes against the public decency doctrine.”
pairs of collectors visiting people and looking at their items, and then Colette Avital, head of the COHS in Israel, said the
making offers. As a show about actual Swap Shop radio, it’s a D. As a stamps belonged in a museum. “Objects like this
show that mimics American Pickers it’s a B. certainly should not be owned privately,” she said.

6 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles