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January 24, 2008
Looting Does Matter
In the light of today's news about Federal agents raiding the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, I thought it might be a good time to introduce those who may not know of it to the blog Looting Matters.
David Gill, the owner operator of Looting Matters, is a member of the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at Swansea University, Wales. He discusses "the archaeological ethics surrounding the collecting of antiquities." Most of his posts deal with classical antiquities but his observations are easily extrapolated to all antiquities. For example, this from a recent post on the bronze statue Artemis and a Stag:
But for all its documented collecting history - some would call it "provenance" - since 1953, Artemis does not have a known archaeological findspot (rather like the Guennol lioness). It is an impressive work, but if it had come from an excavation we would know so much more about its display and appreciation in antiquity. Context matters.
Oh, about the raids at the above mentioned Southern California museums, the Los Angeles Times has this to say,
Federal agents carried out coordinated raids on four Southern California museums and a Los Angeles art gallery early today, the first public move in a five-year investigation of an alleged smuggling pipeline that authorities say funneled looted Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts into local museums.
Please visit Looting Matters and read the whole story of the museum raids in the Los Angeles Times.
Posted by Duane Smith at January 24, 2008 8:14 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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