Antiquities: what everyone needs to know

273 Pages·2017·1.49 MB·English

by  Maxwell Lincoln Anderson

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ANTIQUITIES
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®
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ANTIQUITIES
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®
MAXWELL L. ANDERSON
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To Chase and Devon
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  XV
FOREWORD  XIX
Part I: Legal and Practical Realities
1 Defining Antiquities  3
What are the differences among antiquities, archaeological
materials, and ancient art?  3
How is archaeological material defined?  3
How are scientifically excavated objects removed from
under land or water?  4
How is ancient art defined?  7
Are there accepted arbiters of these definitions?  9
How have these definitions changed over time?  12
How do different countries define antiquities?  13
What are the differences among countries, nations, and ‘state parties’?  13
How do scholars define antiquity differently from culture to culture?  14
2 Cultural Ownership: Past and Present  19
Did people collect in antiquity?  19
How did artifacts move across cultures in the ancient world?  28
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When did ancient cultures turn into modern ones?  29
Who gets to decide whether an artwork has ‘repose’—
or a permanent claim to stay in its current place?  30
What happens to cultural ownership when governments
or regimes change?  31
Why does a modern nation have a claim to an ancient culture?  31
3 Framing Today’s Debate  34
What are the key issues in debate on this matter?  34
What are the fault lines between archaeologists and
those defending collecting?  39
What is at stake in the debate?  41
Who gets to decide the outcomes of claims and counterclaims?  41
How has the debate changed over the last few years?  42
4 The Cosmopolitan Argument  47
What does the contextual argument leave unanswered?  47
What is the cosmopolitan argument?  48
How is it rooted in history?  53
What practical steps are implied in the cosmopolitan argument?  54
How has the cosmopolitan argument been received?  55
5 Divining Originals, Pastiches, and Forgeries  57
What are the origins of copying and forging antiquities?  57
How is an original antiquity recognized as such?  58
What reveals that an antiquity has been restored?  61
What is meant by an intervention?  62
How are replicas defined?  62
What is meant by pastiches?  63
How do experts identify forgeries?  64
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How long have there been forgeries?  65
Are fakes and fraudulently restored artifacts a big part of the market?  66
How do experts insure that works are authentic?  67
Are there degrees of authenticity?  68
How many forgeries make their way into established collections?  69
Part II: Settled Law and Open Questions
6 International Conventions and Treaties  73
What prompted a global conversation about conventions
on cultural property?  73
Is there a generally accepted understanding of which antiquities
are legal to export and import?  74
What are the international treaties governing what is legal?  75
How have market nations dealt with the UNESCO Convention?  77
How have source nations dealt with the UNESCO Convention?  80
What treaties have come in the wake of the UNESCO Convention?  82
What is meant by “good faith”?  83
7 National Laws and Statutes  85
How do national laws intersect with foreign legal systems?  85
What are the differing laws among so- called ‘source’ countries
protecting ancient artifacts?  89
What are the export restrictions of art-r ich nations?  91
What are the import restrictions of nations where collecting is robust?  92
How and where are stolen works seized by government authorities?  92
8 Modern National Identities  95
What modern nations first codified the concept of cultural
patrimony or state ownership? 95
How much does state ownership depend on national identities?  96