Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-7drxs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T11:36:21.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Responsible Stewards” of Classical Antiquities?

The Society for American Archaeology's “Statement on Collaboration” and Non-American Material Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2022

Elizabeth Marlowe Open the ORCID record for Elizabeth Marlowe [Opens in a new window]
Elizabeth Marlowe*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Ancient & Medieval Art and Director of the Program in Museum Studies, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY (emarlowe@colgate.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article considers the relevance of the Society for American Archaeology's 2018 “Statement on Collaboration with Responsible and Responsive Stewards of the Past” for imported antiquities (specifically, “classical” ones—that is, from Mediterranean regions). Various practical, legal, and ethical differences between collecting imported versus domestic objects make it difficult to identify “responsive and responsible stewards” of the former. An obstacle to responsible stewardship of privately owned classical collections—and to collaboration between classical archaeologists and collectors—is the 2008 acquisition guidelines issued by the two leading professional organizations in the museum field. I argue that the best home for unprovenienced and poorly provenienced antiquities collections is in university museums, where their complicated object biographies can be fully researched, taught, and displayed.

Este artículo considera la relevancia de la “Declaración sobre colaboración con administradores responsables y receptivos del pasado” de la Sociedad para Arqueología Americana de 2018 para las antigüedades importadas (concretamente, las “clásicas”, es decir, las procedentes de regiones mediterráneas). Varias diferencias prácticas, legales y éticas entre la recolección de objetos importados frente a los nacionales dificultan la identificación de “administradores receptivos y responsables” del primero. El obstáculo principal para la administración responsable de las colecciones clásicas – y para la colaboración entre arqueólogos y coleccionistas clásicos – son las directrices de adquisición de 2008, publicadas por las dos principales organizaciones profesionales del ámbito museístico. Yo sostengo que el mejor sitio para las colecciones de antigüedades sin procedentes y con procedentes mal registrados son los museos universitarios, dónde sus complicadas biografías de objetos se pueden investigar, enseñar y exponer en su totalidad.

Keywords

1970 UNESCO Conventionantiquities collectingart marketcultural propertylootingmuseum ethicsmuseum policiesobject biographyprovenanceprovenienceuniversity museumsConvención de la UNESCO de 1970coleccionismo de antigüedadesmercado del artepropiedad culturalsaqueoética museísticareglamentos del museobiografía del objetoprocedenciaprovenienciamuseos universitarios
Type
Article
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 10 , Special Issue 3: Professional-Collector Collaboration: Global Challenges and Solutions , August 2022 , pp. 249 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

American Alliance of Museums 2008 Ethics, Standards, and Professional Practices. Archaeological Material and Ancient Art. Electronic document, https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/AAMD%20Guidelines%202013.pdf, accessed March 14, 2022.Google Scholar
Antoniadou, Ioanna 2016 Archaeology, Nationalism and “Looting”: Lessons from Greece. In Challenging the Dichotomy: The Licit and the Illicit in Archaeological and Heritage Discourses, edited by Field, Les, Gnecco, Cristóbal, and Watkins, Joe, pp. 91–105. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Association of Art Museum Directors 2008 New Acquisitions of Archaeological Material and Works of Ancient Art. Electronic document, https://aamd.org/object-registry/new-acquisitions-of-archaeological-material-and-works-of-ancient-art/more-info, accessed January 1, 2022.Google Scholar
Blumenthal, Ralph, and Mashberg, Tom 2012 The Curse of the Outcast Artifact. New York Times, July 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/arts/design/antiquity-market-grapples-with-stricter-guidelines-for-gifts.html, accessed January 1, 2022.Google Scholar
Brodie, Neil 2014 Provenance and Price: Autoregulation of the Antiquities Market. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 20:427–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Michael F. 2004 Who Owns Native Culture? Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Chippindale, Christopher, and Gill, David J. W. 2000 Material Consequences of Contemporary Classical Collecting. American Journal of Archaeology 104:463–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip 2004 Those Obscure Objects of Desire: Collecting Cultures and the Archaeological Landscape in the San Pedro Valley of Arizona. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 33:571–601.Google Scholar
Cotter, Holland 2009 Why University Museums Matter. New York Times, February 19. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/arts/design/20yale.html?pagewanted=all, accessed January 1, 2022.Google Scholar
Elia, Ricardo J. 1993 A Seductive and Troubling Work. Archaeology 46:64–69.Google Scholar
Fincham, Derek 2009 The Fundamental Importance of Archaeological Context. In Art and Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World, edited by Charney, Noah, pp. 1–12. Greenwood Publishing, Westport, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Gerstenblith, Patty 2009 Schultz and Barakat: Universal Recognition of National Ownership of Antiquities. Art Antiquity and Law 21:21–48.Google Scholar
Gerstenblith, Patty 2013 The Meaning of 1970 for the Acquisition of Archaeological Objects. Journal of Field Archaeology 38:363-373.Google Scholar
Gerstenblith, Patty 2016 The Legal Framework for the Prosecution of Crimes Involving Archaeological Objects. Unites States Attorneys’ Bulletin 64(2):5–17.Google Scholar
Gill, David W. J., and Chippindale, Christopher 1993 Material and Intellectual Consequences of Esteem for Cycladic Figures. American Journal of Archaeology 97:601–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goebel, Ted 2015 Grave Consequences: Crossing the Line with Collectors. SAA Archaeological Record 15(5):29–32.Google Scholar
Gosden, Chris, and Marshall, Yvonne 1999 The Cultural Biography of Objects. World Archaeology 31:169–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenland, Fiona 2021 Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilakis, Yannis 2009 The “War on Terror” and the Military-Archaeology Complex: Iraq, Ethics, and Neo-Colonialism. Archaeologies 5:39–65.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Yannis, and Duke, Philip (editors) 2007 Archaeology and Capitalism: From Ethics to Politics. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Hart, Siobhan M., and Chilton, Elizabeth S. 2015 Digging and Destruction: Artifact Collecting as Meaningful Social Practice. International Journal of Heritage Studies 21: 318–335.Google Scholar
Hixenbaugh Ancient Art 2022 Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man. Electronic document, https://www.hixenbaugh.net/gallery/detail.cfm?itemnum=7659, accessed January 11, 2022.Google Scholar
Hollowell-Zimmer, Julie 2003 Digging in the Dirt – Ethics and Low-End Looting. In Ethical Issues in Archaeology, edited by Zimmerman, Larry J., Vitelli, Karen D., and Hollowell-Zimmer, Julie, pp. 45–56. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hostetler, Brad, with Ani, Parnagian 2022 From Private to Public: The Collection of David P. Harris. In “Ethiopian Objects in the Blick-Harris Study Collection: Art, Context, and the Persistence of Form,” edited by Hostetler, Brad and Lynn, Jones. Special issue, Peregrinations 8:5–25.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Sabrina 2018 The Charitable Deduction and Looting of Antiquities: A Comparative Approach. Cornell International Law Journal 51:471-493.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A., and Gillespie, Susan D. 2015 Making Things out of Objects That Move. In Things in Motion: Object Itineraries in Anthropological Practice, edited by Joyce, Rosemary A. and Gillespie, Susan D., pp. 3–20. School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Kersel, Morag 2019 Itinerant Objects: The Legal Lives of Levantine Artifacts. In The Social Archaeology of the Levant, edited by Yasur-Landau, Assaf, Cline, Eric H., and Rowan, Yorke M., pp. 594–612. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kersel, Morag 2020 Engaging with Demand and Destruction. Antiquity 94:1074–1076.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Lyndel, and Marstine, Janet 2006 The University Museum and Gallery: A Site for Institutional Critique and a Focus of the Curriculum. In New Museum Theory and Practice, edited by Marstine, Janet, pp. 266–291. Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopytoff, Igor 1986 The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, pp. 64–91. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraly, Ellen, and Flowers, Ezzard 2016 Mobilizing a “Spiritual Geography”: The Art and Child Artists of the Carrolup Native School and Settlement, Western Australia. Transfers 6:103–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, Simon, Brodie, Neil, Yates, Donna, with Tsirogiannis, Christos 2020 Trafficking Culture: New Directions in Researching the Global Market in Illicit Antiquities. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Marlowe, Elizabeth 2013 Shaky Ground: Context, Connoisseurship and the History of Roman Art. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Marlowe, Elizabeth 2016 What We Talk about When We Talk about Provenance: A Response to Chippindale and Gill. International Journal of Cultural Property 23:217–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marlowe, Elizabeth 2022 Orphan Antiquities at Kenyon College: The Lessons of the Harris Bequest. In “Ethiopian Objects in the Blick-Harris Study Collection: Art, Context, and the Persistence of Form,” edited by Brad, Hostetler and Lynn, Jones. Special issue, Peregrinations 8:26–40.Google Scholar
Meskell, Lynn (editor) 2009 Cosmopolitan Archaeologies. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moshenska, Gabriel 2010 Portable Antiquities, Pragmatism and the “Precious Things.” Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 20:24–27.Google Scholar
Picker Art Gallery 2020 Works in Progress: Original Materials from the Netherlands. https://worksinprogressexhibition.com/, accessed January 1, 2020.Google Scholar
Pickering, Jane 2012 Beyond Collections: Big Issues and University Museums. In Exhibitions and Education: A Handbook for Academic Museums, edited by Jandl, Stefanie S. and Gold, Mark S., pp. 392–417. Museums Etc., Ltd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2014a An Argument for Ethical, Proactive, Archaeologist–Artifact Collector Collaboration. American Antiquity 79:385–400.Google Scholar
Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2014b How Archaeologists and Artifact Collectors Can—and Should—Collaborate to Comply with Legal and Ethical Antiquities Codes. Advances in Archaeological Practice 2:338–352.Google Scholar
Pitblado, Bonnie L., and Shott, Michael J. 2015 The Present and Future of Archaeologist–Collector Collaboration. SAA Archaeological Record 15(5):36–39.Google Scholar
Pitblado, Bonnie L., Shott, Michael J., Brosowske, Scott, Butler, Virginia L., Cox, Jim, Espenshade, Chris, Neller, Angela J., et al. 2018 Process and Outcomes of the SAA “Professional Archaeologists, Avocational Archaeologists, and Responsible Artifact Collectors Relationships Task Force” (2015–2018). SAA Archaeological Record 18(5):14–17.Google Scholar
Pitblado, Bonnie L., and Thomas, Suzie 2020 Unravelling the Spectra of Stewards and Collectors. Antiquity 94:1077–1079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1993 Collectors Are the Real Looters. Archaeology 46:16–17.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 2000 Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Rose, C. Brian 2007 Talking to the Troops about the Archaeology of Iraq and Afghanistan. In The Acquisition and Exhibition of Classical Antiquities, edited by Rhodes, Robin, pp. 139–154. Notre Dame University Press, South Bend, Indiana.Google Scholar
Rothschild, Deborah 2012 Managing a Controversy: Art, Politics and Hitler's Early Years in Venice. In Exhibitions and Education: A Handbook for Academic Museums, edited by Jandl, Stefanie S. and Gold, Mark S., pp. 324–342. Museums Etc., Ltd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shirey, David L. 1973 Von Bothmer Quits Archaeology Unit. New York Times, May 2:36.Google Scholar
Shott, Michael J., and Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2015 Introduction to the Theme “Pros and Cons of Consulting Collectors.” SAA Archaeological Record 15(5):11–13.Google Scholar
Skeates, Robin 2000 Debating the Archaeological Heritage. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Society for American Archaeology 1996 Principles of Archaeological Ethics. Electronic document, https://www.saa.org/career-practice/ethics-in-professional-archaeology, accessed January 1, 2022.Google Scholar
Society for American Archaeology 2018 Society for American Archaeology Statement on Collaboration with Responsible and Responsive Stewards of the Past. Electronic document, https://www.saa.org/quick-nav/saa-media-room/news-article/2018/08/01/statement-on-collaboration-with-responsible-and-responsive-stewards-of-the-past, accessed January 1, 2022.Google Scholar
Stapleton, Lyssa Claire 2017 Acquiring Antiquity: The Future of Cultural Heritage Collecting and Stewardship in the United States. PhD dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Thompson, Erin 2010 The Relationship between Tax Deductions and the Market for Unprovenanced Antiquities. Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts 33:241–265.Google Scholar
Thum, Jen, and Troche, Julia 2016 Visitor as Researcher: Making Archaeology More Accessible with Broken and Unprovenienced Objects. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4:537–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voudouri, Daphne 2008 Greek Legislation Concerning the International Movement of Antiquities and Its Ideological and Political Dimensions. In A Singular Antiquity: Archaeology and Hellenic Identity in Twentieth-Century Greece, edited by Damaskos, Dimitris and Plantzos, Dimitris, pp. 125–139. Mouseio Benaki, Athens.Google Scholar
White, Shelby 2005 Building American Museums: The Role of the Private Collector. In Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the Law, edited by Gibbon, Kate Fitz, pp. 191–204. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.Google Scholar