CTO Posted May 15, 2008 Report Share Posted May 15, 2008 Worth saying twice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 15, 2008 Report Share Posted May 15, 2008 << But you can buy them on the street inn BKK any old time-What a laugh... >> Many antique items are legal to own, just not to take out of the country. However, most of what you see for sale are quite convincing fakes. I used to live near Sukhothai. Genuine 13th and 14th century ceramics, Buddha figures etc could be bought by anyone with the money. Farmers dug them up and sold them for whatever they could get. Actually, most of the Bang Chiang relics were found and sold by the locals before the Fine Arts Department even knew they existed. The Fine Arts Dept had to excavate under the paved roads to find anything left in situ. Obviously, the majority of the Ban Chiang artifacts are in private hands inside Thailand. (Jim Thompson had a fantastic collection.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted May 15, 2008 Report Share Posted May 15, 2008 Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Last updated 6:50 p.m. PT Indicted museum director found dead at WA federal prison THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The director of a Thailand museum who was indicted as part of a federal investigation into looted antiquities has been found dead at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac -- apparently from natural causes. Roxanna Brown, a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, passed away sometime around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Prison spokeswoman Maggie Ogden says an autopsy will be performed. Brown was the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand. She was arrested last week while visiting relatives in Seattle and charged with one count of wire fraud. Health problems prevented her from appearing in federal court in Seattle on Monday. She was accused of allowing art collectors to use her electronic signature to overstate the value of art they donated to several Southern California museums. Investigators say that allowed the collectors to claim fraudulent tax deductions. Indicted museum director found dead -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 15, 2008 Report Share Posted May 15, 2008 Oh, my word ... poor Roxanna. What sort of effed up karma did she have. As I recall, her brother was serving in Vietnam and she went there to visit him. (A bit unusual) She met some freelance journalists and became one herself. Then she studied in Singapore, before moving to Bangkok to work. She was nearly killed in 1982, when the real duals of that semi ran over first her chest and then her legs! Her chest was crushed and one lung punctured. It's a miracle she even survived. When I knew her, she had to walk with two canes. The medication also seriously damaged her hearing, and she would sometimes get so frustrated that she break down in tears. She'd married a Thai and had a son, but the husband dumped her when she was left almost an invalid. I'm glad to hear she at least had some good years later and was able to get around. Her sudden death sounds very suspicious to me. Good bye, Roxanna. Rest in peace. You deserved better out of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 15, 2008 Report Share Posted May 15, 2008 << Roxanna Brown was introduced by UCLA art historian Robert Brown, who described her as "one of the two or three people who created the field of Southeast Asian ceramics. >> Looks a lot older here than when I knew her Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 FM Yes they have "reasonably" convincing fakes but frankly there are period items mixed in at many many shops and even street stalls. I have been studying SE Asian objects for over 20 years... This morning I was shocked when I read the BKK post regarding her OUTRAGEOUS DEATH - Yesterday afriend commented that her health was so poor that she would die in jail .. she did the first nite. There will be a civil suit and I hope her family wins... A 62 year old woman in poor health...with no past criminal history jailed for an electronic signature??? This is disgraceful and I have been complaining about Burma??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 You mean the real stuff is under the counter in shops? Wouldn't be surprised. The Khmer Rouge are supposed to have looted a lot of Cambodian sites and sold the artifacts through the Bangkok black market. I can't believe Roxanna was in on this. She had no need to be and didn't strike me as that sort of person. ---------- Brown's brother, Fred Leo Brown, of Chicago, said his sister maintained her innocence. Although a cause of death had not been determined, he said he had been told his sister suffered a heart attack, which he suggested was the result of stress from the arrest. "She wasn't in good health to begin with, but they definitely brought on the heart attack," he said. Brown said his sister became interested in Southeast Asian art after visiting him in 1968 in Australia, where he was recovering from a Vietnam War wound. With a journalism degree from Columbia University, she soon made her way to Saigon, where she befriended many people in the international news corps, he said, and she traveled around Vietnam in the early 1970s visiting kiln sites where pottery was made. She earned a master's degree in Asian art at Oxford University and lost one leg in an accident in Bangkok in 1980, he said. According to UCLA's Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Brown holds a doctorate in art history from the university. She is survived by one son, who lives in Bangkok, Fred Brown said. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Bangkok Post 16 May 2008 ... [cut] ... Her apprehension surprised many who knew and respected her as ''the epitome of the academic expert'', as one art historian told the Bangkok Post. Federal investigators asserted Ms Brown allowed her electronic signature to be placed on fake appraisal forms that inflated the value of pieces from Ban Chiang archaeological site. This allowed collectors to claim fraudulent tax deductions, authorities said. Ms Brown had been a resident of Bangkok for over 30 years. "It is a big loss to our field. This case is so sudden and rather bizarre," said Erbprem Vatcharangkul, an archaeologist at the Fine Arts Department and adviser to Ms Brown's doctoral thesis on shipwreck ancient ceramics. Burin Singtoaj, her subordinate and also curator at the museum in Bangkok, said he was shocked and saddened. "The saddest part is that she did not have a chance to defend herself." [color:red]He found the allegation against her confusing as she was not an expert on Ban Chiang.[/color] She was the authoritative figure on Southeast Asian ancient ceramics, a much later period than Ban Chiang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 This is shameful,shameful.Many people are extremely upset as she was a highly respected scholar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Looks to me like she was charged on very flimsy evidence. The federal govmt is good at that ... guilt by association. The way they did it too was especially nasty. Why was she arrested ... and the real culprits are still not even charged with anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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