On February 6, 1987, a band of graverobbing brothers in the Peruvian village of Sipán broke through a burial ground known as Huaca Rajada and found themselves inside the tomb of an ancient Moche ruler dating back to 100 AD. After smashing their way through pottery and bronze, they hit paydirt – silver and gold artifacts that filled up multiple sacks. The items quickly hit the international antiquity market, launching a feeding frenzy for not only items from Sipán but anywhere in Peru. Soon other bands of graverobbers began digging throughout the poverty-stricken country, hoping to find their own fortune.
In his 2004 book Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, American journalist Roger Atwood tells the story of the Sipán discovery, from the pillage by the Bernal brothers to police efforts to end the looting, from the excavation of the site by archaeologist Walter Alva to efforts in the United States to recover stolen artifacts.
“Looting robs a country of its heritage, but, even worse, it destroys everyone’s ability to know about the past,” Atwood writes. “Looting obliterates the memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning.”
In 1994, Green Arrow comic book writer Doug Moench and artists Jim Balent and Jim Aparo brought the DC superhero and his Oliver Queen secret identity into the world of stolen Peruvian antiquities. During a cross-country road trip from Seattle to New York City, Queen makes a stop in Dallas. After a restful night, he decides to visit the Dallas Museum and its new exhibit on ancient weapons. While there, he notices three bulky men enter a door marked “Private” and follows them into the basement. The trio draw their guns on museum director Ben Boguns, causing Queen to jump into action and drive them away. He then asks Boguns why the men wanted to kill him.
“The man who sent those men – Lyle Strait – is a dealer in antiquities, specializing in pre-Columbian South America artifacts,” Boguns explains. “Restrictions imposed by the Peruvian government have rendered ‘Inca stuff’ increasingly difficult to buy and sell. So much so that dealers like Strait now have very little interest to me or my museum. Nevertheless, I found myself with some free time yesterday so I went over to Strait’s shop on Houston Street near the Stemmons Freeway, just to say hello and see what he had.”
Although most of the items were “just trinkets and junk” and the store itself was devoid of not only customers but even Lyle Strait, Ben Boguns discovered three Incan figures in Strait’s office from a recent dig in Peru. When Strait arrives, however, he insists that they are counterfeits, telling Boguns, “With all the restrictions on trade in authentic antiquities, I decided to branch out into overpriced museum-quality replicas, just like the stuff you peddle in your gift shop.”
Boguns didn’t believe Strait, and Strait thus sent the three goons to prevent him from contacting the authorities. Oliver Queen now tells Boguns to hold off making that call for forty-eight hours while he attempts to rescue the items himself.
By the time police in Peru were notified of the looting in Sipán, the burial mound in which the Bernal brothers made their discovery was overrun by wannabee graverobbers, each hoping to likewise strike it rich. The police removed them from the area and transferred control of the site to archaeologist Walter Alva from the nearby Bruning Museum in Lambayeque. Alva and his crew lived and worked at Huaca Rajada for months afterwards with armed guards surrounding the burial mound to keep looters at bay. During the night, the archaeologists often had to sleep inside the graves they had uncovered for protection.
The Huaca Rajada at Sipán was the South American equivalent of the 1922 discovery of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt. The Moche were the dominant indigenous culture in Peru from 100 AD until their decline and replacement by the Incas in 700 AD, although little else was known about them before the Sipán discovery. The Huaca Rajada turned out to be the burial ground for three generations of rulers. The tomb of the middle monarch had been obliterated by the Bernal brothers but the other two graves were still intact, providing a treasure-trove of not only artwork but insights into the Moche culture as well.
Artifacts uncovered by the Bernal brothers inevitably found their way into the United States. The Cultural Property Implementation Act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and allowed foreign nations to specifically request import restriction on their antiquities. Peru filed for protection in 1989. A handful of artifacts from Sipán were recovered as a result, including a large crate filled with them that was seized by customs inspectors in Miami.
Museums that historically relied on illegal trade for their collections, however, stood defiant. When the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, exhibited pre-Columbian artifacts loaned to the museum, they refused to return a gold rattle unique to Sipán, as well as a gold monkey head similar to others found in nearby La Mina. Citing a lack of evidence that the items were smuggled into the United States, the Justice Department decided against taking legal action.
Back in the DC Universe, Green Arrow stumbles upon a literal cat burglar – Catwoman – while staking out Lyle Strait’s antiquity store. After a brief struggle that ends in a draw, Catwoman explains that she is not there to steal the Inca figures for herself but has been hired by the government of Peru to return them to their native country. The pair thus call a truce and agree to work together the next night to retrieve the items.
Lyle Strait is present that evening, as well as Ben Boguns, who is brandishing an ancient Peruvian sun disk made of gold for protection. The museum director isn’t as innocent as he led Oliver Queen to believe, having cheated Strait in the past and now deciding to cut out the middle man and partner directly with the smugglers. As Boguns kills both Lyle Strait and his men, Catwoman begins cracking the safe that contains the Inca figures while Green Arrow goes on the offensive.
Ben Boguns escapes in a van with the gold shield but the superhero and sometimes villainess take off in pursuit. When they catch up, Boguns throws open the back doors and fires his gun while continuing to use the sun disk for protection. Green Arrow is able to find his mark nonetheless, and as Boguns falls backwards, the gold shield flies out of the vehicle. A quick-thinking Green Arrow leaps out of the car driven by Catwoman and catches it before it hits the ground, but Catwoman just as quickly snatches it from Green Arrow’s hands.
“Thank you,” she says as she drives away. “And since virtue is its own reward for heroes like you, I’ll keep all the reward money for myself.” The next morning, Oliver Queen places a call to Peru to confirm Catwoman’s story. “How about that,” he says to himself afterwards. “She really is a repo woman for Peru’s past.”
In the real world, it was FBI Agent Robert Bazen who acted as a “repo man” for stolen art. While working undercover, he retrieved a Rodin sculpture stolen from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and another Rodin taken from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1994, Bazen made contact with a dealer in possession of the biggest artifact stolen by the Bernal brothers from Sipán – a large, solid gold backflap. The artifact was damaged when removed from the grave and efforts to shine the gold with a Brillo pad further deteriorated the item’s appearance, causing many collectors to pass on it. Bazen, however, was more than willing to cut a deal.
Just as Brazen gained the trust of the dealer – Denis Garcia – he lost contact. Three years later, Garcia called out of the blue to finalize the transaction. By now, Robert Brazen was retired from the FBI and concocted a story about impending heart surgery. He added that he knew someone who might be interested, another undercover agent named Bob Wittman. In Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, Roger Atwood describes the sting operation set up by Wittman to recover the gold backflap, as well as the hoops that Garcia had to go through to get the large artifact out of Peru.
Despite the condition of the backflap, it was welcomed back in its homeland afterwards and placed on display at the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum – a haunting example of the ways illegal looting can cause damage to a nation’s cultural heritage, both literally and historically.
Anthony Letizia