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Friday, April 16, 2010 - 1:57 PM
Dayan also sold antiquities.
When Yael Dayan was married in 1967, he sold a few valuable antiquities
to the
Israel Museum, including a fish-shaped vessel from Tel Poleg, to finance
her
wedding. This is documented in a Museum newsletter (New Acquisitions
1968:72),
but the price is not specified (the vessel was later published by Gophna
1969).
Gradually, Dayan became obsessive with money (Dayan A. 1994:161), and
used
antiquities as a source of income, which he hardly needed.�
He sold oil lamps signed with his name
(Dayan Y. 1985:231, 254, 256). Unlike claims to the contrary, he also
sold
finds that were excavated illegally. Yael admitted this, and she knew,
because
she bought from him finds on which he marked the place of origin (Y.
Dayan
1991:15). Public Museums knew as well, and bought from Dayan antiquities
marked
in his handwriting, including anthropoid coffins from Deir el-Balah.
Yaacov
Meshorer of the Israel Museum said �Dayan had even sold a number of
precious
pieces to the Museum� (Aarons 1982:28). Yael Dayan complained that she
had to
pay her father for a signed oil lamp- which she intended to give as a
present
to a third party (Y. Dayan 1985:255). She complained about an Eames
armchair-
not an antiquity this time- which she bought as a �deal�, but returned
because
it was an imitation (Dayan Y. 1985:255). She complained because she
hoped that
she, as a daughter, would receive antiquities cheaply or free of charge;
or
because, in the case of the Eames Armchair, she was cheated.� The merchandise sold by the dealer, General
Moshe Dayan, was fake.
5.3.��� The case of Kh. Gomer is an
interesting example.� It is a site near
Lahav, about 5 kms south west of Tell Eitun in the Judaean Shephelah
(Coordinates 1399/0976). During the 1970�, Amos Kloner was supervisor of
the
area for the IDAM, and he heard in summer 1973 about the robbery of a
burial
cave at this site. He surveyed the cave, with the help of John
Landegraff.
There was an Aramaic funerary inscription in Hebrew letters above the
entrance
which they planned to take out, but the 1973 war broke and Kloner was
called to
active military service. Upon returning, he met Joseph Naveh to discuss
robbery
of sites. Naveh told Kloner that he saw a new inscription held by Dayan,
and
described it to Kloner- it was the same inscription from Kh. Gomer. The
inscription was brutally carved out of the rock. Kloner phoned Dayan,
and tried
to speak with him about the inscription, but Dayan said he had no time
for him.
Kloner approached A. Biran, and negotiations with Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire started. Dayan
claimed
that he bought the inscription for a considerable sum. Finally, the
Ministry of
Education had to allocate 2500 Israeli pounds (ca.
US$ 600 in 1973) of its budget for paying
Dayan. The Minister of Defense of the State of Israel sold the
inscription to
the State of Israel (Kloner, interview 20.3.2002; Kloner 1986:96-97, n.
3).
5.4���� Recent
confirmation of Dayan�s involvement in smuggling of antiquities is found
in an
interview held with Shlomo Moussaieff (on Moussaeiff see Shanks
1996:27-31).
Moussaieff, a famous millionaire who divides his time between London and
Israel, admitted that in the 1950� he himself�
�smuggled gold and antiquities from Jordan to Israel�... but says
�it is
hard for me to depart from my antiquities, so I am not an
antiquity-trader but
a collector.� Until he left for London in 1963, Moussaieff,
�through dealing with antiquities became acquainted with Moshe Dayan... I
used
his tender [vehicle] to transport antiquities. In return, I gave
him
antiquities. Sometimes we used to go to dig together� (Liebowitz-Dar
2001:26).
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