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Loot, legitimacy, and ownership : the ethical crisis in archaeology / Colin Renfrew.

By:

Renfrew, Colin, 1937- [author]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Duckworth debates in archaeologyPublication details: London : Duckworth, 2000.Description: 160 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0715630342
9780715630341

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

363.69

Contents:

The destruction of the past -- Unprovenanced antiquities: the role of the private collector and the dealer -- Causes for concern: illegitimate acquisition and reluctant restitution -- A universal problem: Asia, Africa, America -- Ineffective safeguards and evolving moralities -- Antiquities in Britain: the local view -- Envoi: the past has an uncertain future.

Summary: "The world's archaeological heritage is under threat as never before, and th ultimate culprits are those very parties who claim to value the past: the museum and the private collector. In this eye-opening account, Colin Renfrew illustrates how the most precious product of archaeology ins the information that controlled and well-published excavations can give us about our shared human past. Clandestine and unpublished digging of archaeological sites for gain - i.e. looting - destroys the context and all hope of providing such information. It is the source of most of the antiquities that appear on the art market today - for example from Turkey, Cambodia, Peru, Mali, and also from Britain - unprovenanced antiquities, the product of illicit traffic financed, knowingly or not, by the collectors and museums that buy them on a no-questions-asked basis. Professor Renfrew reviews some prominent recent scandals: the Lydian Treasure, returned to Turkey by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in new York; the Getty Kouros; the Weary Herakles, which the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston still refuses to return to its country of origin; the Salisbury Hoard; the Sevso Treasure. The illicit antiquities trade has turned London along with other international centres into a 'thieves' kitchen' where greed triumphs over serious appreciation of the past. Unless a solution is found to this ethical crisis in archaeology, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. This book lays bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that underlie the crisis."-- Publisher's description." -- Publisher's description.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book - 7-day loan	CYA Library Main Collection	363.69 REN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		00000010734

Total holds: 0

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Previous								Next
Previous	363.4609495 HAL The empty cradle of democracy :	363.69 GRE The return of cultural treasures /	363.69 LAF Negotiating culture :	363.69 REN Loot, legitimacy, and ownership :	363.7 GOR Earth in the balance : ecology and the human spirit /	363.7 MCC Environmental policy in the European Union /	363.700973 GRE Green giants? : environmental policies of the United States and the European Union /	Next

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-156) and index.

"The world's archaeological heritage is under threat as never before, and th ultimate culprits are those very parties who claim to value the past: the museum and the private collector. In this eye-opening account, Colin Renfrew illustrates how the most precious product of archaeology ins the information that controlled and well-published excavations can give us about our shared human past. Clandestine and unpublished digging of archaeological sites for gain - i.e. looting - destroys the context and all hope of providing such information. It is the source of most of the antiquities that appear on the art market today - for example from Turkey, Cambodia, Peru, Mali, and also from Britain - unprovenanced antiquities, the product of illicit traffic financed, knowingly or not, by the collectors and museums that buy them on a no-questions-asked basis.
Professor Renfrew reviews some prominent recent scandals: the Lydian Treasure, returned to Turkey by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in new York; the Getty Kouros; the Weary Herakles, which the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston still refuses to return to its country of origin; the Salisbury Hoard; the Sevso Treasure.
The illicit antiquities trade has turned London along with other international centres into a 'thieves' kitchen' where greed triumphs over serious appreciation of the past. Unless a solution is found to this ethical crisis in archaeology, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. This book lays bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that underlie the crisis."-- Publisher's description." -- Publisher's description.