‘Indiana Joan’ probed for allegedly looting artifacts in Egypt, Israel, Jordan

The Australian government has launched an investigation into 95-year-old Perth resident Joan Howard, who archeologists accuse of looting artifacts from Egypt, Jordan and Israel decades ago.

Howard, dubbed “Indiana Joan” in the Australian media, traveled extensively throughout the Middle East during the 1960s and 1970s as the wife of a UN diplomat, and regularly volunteered on archeological digs.

A recent profile of Howard in The West Australian newspaper showcased her extensive collection that includes Neolithic ax heads, Phoenician pottery and weapons, Roman coins, seals and a precious funerary mask from Egypt.

The November 4 piece was headlined, “Indiana Joan: Meet WA’s real life tomb raider, 95-year-old Joan Howard.” It began with a description of its heroine inthe late 1960s, digging “Deep beneath the badlands of Palestine, alone in a darkened tomb… Sluggish scorpions scattered and clacked amid the bones of the ancient dead as she scooped artefacts and the detritus of ages into a bucket.”

Howard’s collection is estimated to be worth over $1 million.

“Through her husband’s UN connections, over 11 years she was given carte blanche to travel between Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel,” the newspaper said of Howard in the profile.

“She used her diplomatic freedom to search for antiquities before laws changed and it became legally difficult to do so,” it said.

The report sparked a backlash from Egyptian archeologists, who demanded the Australian government investigate Howard’s “illegal activities.”

“We want to investigate how these pieces made it out of Egypt illegally,” said Shaaban Abdel Gawad, the director-general of the Retrieved Antiquities Department at Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

“The theft of antiquities and their subsequent sale is not a new phenomenon and we are interested in retrieving those that belong to our country wherever they may be,” Gawad added.

On Friday, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was looking into the matter.

“Australia implements its obligations under the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) … this includes the return of foreign cultural property which has been illegally exported from its country of origin and imported into Australia,” a department spokesman said.