Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage

Description: From the back cover: "Whether antiquities should be returned to the countries where they were found is one of the most urgent and controversial issues in the art world today. Countries such as Italy, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and China have claimed ancient artifacts as state property, called for the return from museums around the world, and passed laws against their future export in an attempt to combat looting. But in Who Owns Antiquity?, one the world's leading museum directors vigorously challenging this nationalistic position, presenting the first extended defense of a museum's right to acquire and maintain undocumented foreign antiquities under certain reasonable conditions. James Cuno argues that nationalistic retention and reclamation policies impede common access to humanity's common heritage and encourage the politicization of antiquities -- and of culture itself. He condemns the looting of antiquities and calls for a restoration of partage, the system under which source countries shared unearthed artifacts with the host institutions of foreign excavators. Cuno explains how partage broadened access to our ancient heritage and helped create national museums in Cairo, Baghdad, and Kabul." This is an exquisitely and thoughtfully written book -- and very, very controversial.

Price: 7.99 USD

Location: Astoria, New York

End Time: 2024-11-01T17:12:27.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD