Week 8: Collections

 

 

Dying Gaul 
Source

It is a secret that everyone knows. A forbidden action that all nations condemn, but only the powerful can perpetrate the action of stealing and smuggling art and artifacts. Museums are full of art and artifacts that have been illegal acquired, and museums play into the illegal system. It is well known and well documented the illegal and shady negotiating, and buying museums do.  There has always been a plea to not plunder the art of a conquered land, but the industrial world does not hear the plea.

Ekpo Eyo writes in, “Reparation of Cultural Heritage: The African Experience” the pleas over the centuries not to steal cultural heritage. And how the nation whose cultural heritage was stolen from them through war or just plan thievery the nation suffers. Ekpo Eyo quotes the Greek Historian Polybius, “the city should not owe its beauty to adornments brought in elsewhere, but to the valor of its inhabitants.” 1  This statement has been reworded in most events of combat to Napoleon’s campaign, World War One, World War Two, and all the wars in between. It would only seem to be common sense not to take what does not belong to that country. Because of the impact those artifacts have to the people of the nation that are stolen from it leaves their country poor and their identity severed.  Their art and artifacts are not for others meaning wealthy nations to have because their art is not made to be shared but to represent.

Pleas can go ignored, but punishments must not be avoided. Nations apart of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization need to hold true to what they are saying and passing. UNESCO are the ones pleading not to steal people’s culture. Silvia Beltrametti, the author of, “Provenance and the Antiquities Market” shows that with action against illegal trafficking, and excavating can change for the better.  Museum need to follow the regulation in place. And have a duty to communities they serve to be ethical, legal, and practical with their purchasing power.

Museums can still have ethical control of their collection.  Museum will always have to sell and buy for new art to display. There is art that has never been seen in the collection of museums. It might be museums’ job to service the public, but they have art that never been seen so what is the public losing when they sell art to display. Most of what is in the collection is done by a man. “In 2020 The Baltimore Museum of Art Will Only Collect Works By Women” by Elana Lyn Gross proves art museums can be radical in what they display. The Baltimore Museum of Art is not stealing from other countries to gain martial. They are offering the women of Baltimore their own culture heritage by being recognized.

Gross, Elana Lyn. “In 2020 The Baltimore Museum Of Art Will Only Collect Works By Women.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, November 18, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2019/11/18/in-2020-the-baltimore-museum-of-art-will-only-collect-works-by-women/.

Beltrametti, Silvia. “Provenance and the Antiquities Market.” Smarthistory, April 17, 2020 https://smarthistory.org/provenance-antiquities/.

Kaplan, Flora S Ekpo Eyo. “Repatriation of Cultural Heritage: The African Expererince.” Museums and the Making of ‘Ourselve’: The Role of Objects in National Identity (1994): 331-350



Comments

  1. AshtonOctober 17, 2020 at 10:23 PM

    I imagine you'll tackle this next week but what do you think should be done about this? Should they outright give them back, should a trade be made, or should they just offer them back at a price? It would be great if they could establish a trade where they could trade war stolen pieces for more contemporary art.

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