drewd The Adventures of Carlos d’Avis

Perusing Stolen Goods

Laura commented on my previous post, noting her appreciation for the photograph above and, lo, I was motivated to write again of Europe. She mentioned the toothless nature of the sculpture, while I found its lack of eyes even more stirring (and appropriate to my recent discussion of Blindness). The British museum website has a concise but illuminating description of the Knidos lion and its history, dating back to 200 - 350 BC.

The photograph is from my final afternoon in London, spent wandering about the British Museum, the edifice in which the British Empire proudly displays all the artifacts that it has… collected from around the world. I walked into the very first display hall and was greeted by a thick crowd of tourists around one case. What could be in this case, I wondered.

I got closer and, oh, right, it was the Rosetta Stone.

Strong work.

I quite enjoyed the breadth and depth of art and artifacts the museum offered. Still, I found it somewhat difficult to accept the appropriateness of these works having been removed from their native cultures and countries. I find elitist the notion that “The White Man” conquering cultures or nations have a responsibility and unique capability to preserve the world’s wonders. On the other hand, I would not have wanted any of those works I perused to have been lost to age, weather, political turmoil or other unforeseen elements. How horrible is it that the Catholic church went around covering or knocking penises off of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture?¹

Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? Or did all my discussion put you to sleep:

1 I have heard this in the past but now I went looking for sources supporting this claim and am having difficulty finding any. Does anyone know if my claim is accurate? Or do you have examples of other regimes or groups destroying or inadequately preserving art and artifacts?

Don’t know about them specifically knocking off penises, but you do find quite a large number of crosses carved over Egyptian gods.

And, as sad as it is to say this, the Greek antiquities are definitely displayed better in the British Museum than in Greek museums. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that they’ve cut into that tourism market.

Also, I’m sad that you can’t touch the Rosetta Stone anymore.

don’t know about the statues, but I think there was a time in the 1800s when some poeople in the catholic church were painting over the genitalia with fig leaves and such. This practice has definitively ended. I believe it was the previous pope who took great pains to make sure all penises were restored. This was fitting with his excellent treatises on “body theology”.

I think it’s dangerous to use the term ‘White Man’ here. I think it’s more about conquering cultures than skin tone, and bringing race (no matter how tongue in cheek, or even if you’re not intending for it to be racial) into the matter is unnecessary and detrimental to the actual point of your argument (it seems a little liberal-guilt-ish to me).

Aside from that, I think there is responsibility amongst all people to preserve antiquities. I think that the British had no right to take any of their ‘collection,’ but I do think they have a responsibility to make sure what’s in their possession is preserved. Basically, they need to return any artifacts that would be safe upon return. The Brits should have preservation on their mind at this point. We shouldn’t blame the British for the mistakes of their ancestors, as long as they do the right thing now (which they probably won’t).

Oi! Apologies to my readers–Joaquin is absolutely correct. I meant to put White Man in quotes as a mean of highlighting my tongue in cheek tone. I was trying to reference satirically the history of colonialism and cultural elitism, perhaps illustrated by Kipling’s The White Man’s Burdern.

Regardless, you are correct that considering race is irrelevant and detrimental in discussion of this matter. The British misappropriated antiquities from the Greeks just as well as they did from everyone else.

And I agree with your response to the issue but I still have some questions. Should caretakers of artifacts have the discretion to return them or not based on the intent and capability of the original owner(s)?

Let’s say I like to rip discs in half. Is it alright for you not to return a disc you took from me because you think it’s wrong for me to rip it in half?

Also, how does one define and track ownership over millennia of cultural and political changes?

http://therapeofeuropa.com/

“The Rape of Europa tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and the Second World War.

In a journey through seven countries, the film takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures. “

The Rape of Europa was a fascinating movie (just hard to handle in one sitting, I’ve never seen such a long documentary). Still, I’m not sure how relevant it is to this discussion.

I haven’t actually seen the movie myself, but from what I’ve heard of the documentary I thought it was relevant to Drew’s footnote.

“Or do you have examples of other regimes or groups destroying or inadequately preserving art and artifacts?”

True, I’m dumb.