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SAFE Global Candlelight Vigil.
Apr. 10th, 2008 09:38 pmApril 10-12, 2008 marks the five-year anniversary of the looting of the Baghdad Museum. All over the world, organizations are holding candlelight vigils in support of spreading awareness about this important problem. Saving Antiquities for Everyone has a page full of information and suggestions for anyone interested in participating (in ways large and small) in commemorative activities and also some great videos about the issue.
I attended a colloquium on the looting the Baghdad museum on Wednesday. I've been so busy with everything, but it seemed far too important to miss. Museum ethics and the practices of collecting have been issues of great interest to me over the years, and I was curious what the local archaeology and museum community had to say about the problem.
There were three speakers who discussed looting from three perspectives--from that of legitimate researchers, from that of civilian looting populations, and from that of museums who must deal with potentially black-market goods.
One speaker made the quite intriguing, and radical, suggestion that the only way to stop the black-market antiquities trade would be for museums to stop collecting. He suggested that the modern museum really has no further need for "new" pieces, and that any institution looking to fill a particular gap should work with the organizations that already have them--to help foster profitable exchange (technological or training assistance in exchange for the loan of pieces, for example)--rather than attempt to keep building up their collections, so much of which are kept in storage most of the time anyway.
The idea has merit, but of course it fails completely to speak to the fact that most collectors these days are private, and that there's no stopping them from buying illicitly gotten items and then one day down the road donating them to a museum.
The issue persists in being complex, and there are few answers. But at least folks are thinking about it - which is always a good place to start.
( And also, the cutest looting song ever. )
I attended a colloquium on the looting the Baghdad museum on Wednesday. I've been so busy with everything, but it seemed far too important to miss. Museum ethics and the practices of collecting have been issues of great interest to me over the years, and I was curious what the local archaeology and museum community had to say about the problem.
There were three speakers who discussed looting from three perspectives--from that of legitimate researchers, from that of civilian looting populations, and from that of museums who must deal with potentially black-market goods.
One speaker made the quite intriguing, and radical, suggestion that the only way to stop the black-market antiquities trade would be for museums to stop collecting. He suggested that the modern museum really has no further need for "new" pieces, and that any institution looking to fill a particular gap should work with the organizations that already have them--to help foster profitable exchange (technological or training assistance in exchange for the loan of pieces, for example)--rather than attempt to keep building up their collections, so much of which are kept in storage most of the time anyway.
The idea has merit, but of course it fails completely to speak to the fact that most collectors these days are private, and that there's no stopping them from buying illicitly gotten items and then one day down the road donating them to a museum.
The issue persists in being complex, and there are few answers. But at least folks are thinking about it - which is always a good place to start.
( And also, the cutest looting song ever. )
