Comments on: Four museums in CA raided in looting bust

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:32:52 +0000

Done, sir.

By: Clutch

Clutch — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:16:16 +0000

I about as far from mind as is possible.

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:33:17 +0000

If you don’t mind, Clutch, I’d like answer this in a post.

By: Clutch

Clutch — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:57:07 +0000

“They can’t excavate antiquities legally and the provenanced market is really very small, too small to create extensive collections from in a short span of time.”

Damn.

So, are all the graduates of curating/gallery studies/museum studies doomed to careers of self-deception or outright fraud? Do you think anything can be done? If the legal/moral supply really is too small, and the demand is large, it strikes me that a “War on Drugs” approach of occasional prosecutions will work no better than… well, the War on Drugs. Do you see a practical course of action that could help?

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:40:19 +0000

I hate to say it, but odds are a good portion of the things you saw were stolen, possibly under horrendously destructive circumstances.

There isn’t a museum in the United States that hasn’t built collections over the last 40 years out of looted goods.

They can’t excavate antiquities legally and the provenanced market is really very small, too small to create extensive collections from in a short span of time.