ARAMAIC WATCH: Martin Schøyen wants his Aramaic incantation bowl collection back from University College London:

Tycoon orders university to return his ‘magic’ artefacts
Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent (Times of London)

A buyer of antiquities is suing University College London for the return of a multi-million-pound collection of ancient artefacts he lent it a decade ago.

Martin Schøyen, a Norwegian tycoon who has homes in London and Oslo, accuses the university of giving him “spurious reasons” for failing to return 654 Aramaic incantation bowls that date from the 1st century. He loaned the bowls, which are inscribed with magical texts, for academic research purposes in 1996. But two years ago the strength of criticism from scholars about the bowls’ provenance led the university to open an investigation. Lord Renfrew of Kaims-thorn, director of the McDon-ald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, joined an independent ethics committee headed by the lawyer David Freeman.

The committee’s report was delivered last summer, and although UCL has yet to publish it, the case will make other public institutions wary of handling unprovenanced antiquities.

While Mr Schøyen’s claim that the bowls were exported legally from the Middle East is being challenged, the collection remains in store at UCL.

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They aren't from the first century. Such bowls were manufactured in the fifth to seven centuries CE.

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