The New York Times is reporting that some dishes that were evidently taken from one of Saddam's palaces are being repatriated to Iraq after being seized by US Marshalls. See http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/looted-dishes-used-in-art-project-returned-to-iraq/
The plates had evidently attracted the notice of Iraqi officials after being used for performance art by an Iraqi-Jewish American whose parents had been driven from the country in 1946.
This seems to be yet another case of cultural property overkill. And I wonder whether the Iraqi diplomats would have been as keen to demand repatriation of the dinner plates if the artist had not been from an Iraqi-Jewish family.
Shouldn't the artist and his family be the ones who deserve reparations?
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
The Aleppo Codex
The archaeological blogosphere has been full of comments about the pros and cons of repatriating the Iraqi Jewish archive. Yet, there has been no discussion of the far more culturally significant Aleppo Codex that left another country hostile to Jewish culture years ago. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_Codex
The Codex left Syria well before academic archaeologists began to press for repatriation even where such returns raise serious questions about preservation of the objects in question.
The Codex is clearly better off in Israel than in Syria. The strong likelihood is that the Iraqi Jewish archive would be more likely to be preserved and studied as well if it remains outside of a hostile Iraq. Yet, our State Department as well as its supporters in the archaeological community apparently do not see it that way. They plan to accede to Iraqi demands for repatriation, although there are no guarantees the archive will be available for academic study or even preserved.
Will there also be calls for the return of the Aleppo Codex? Or, is the analysis different because it left Syria well before the 1970 UNESCO Convention was promulgated?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_Codex
The Codex left Syria well before academic archaeologists began to press for repatriation even where such returns raise serious questions about preservation of the objects in question.
The Codex is clearly better off in Israel than in Syria. The strong likelihood is that the Iraqi Jewish archive would be more likely to be preserved and studied as well if it remains outside of a hostile Iraq. Yet, our State Department as well as its supporters in the archaeological community apparently do not see it that way. They plan to accede to Iraqi demands for repatriation, although there are no guarantees the archive will be available for academic study or even preserved.
Will there also be calls for the return of the Aleppo Codex? Or, is the analysis different because it left Syria well before the 1970 UNESCO Convention was promulgated?
Labels:
Archaeologists,
Iraq,
Repatriation,
State Department,
Syria,
Torah Scrolls
More on the Jewish Archive
Dorothy King (PhDiva) has an interesting post about the continuing dispute over the return of a Jewish archive to Iraq. See
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/07/iraqi-jewish-archive.html
Repatriationists within the State Department seem hell bent on returning the material to the Iraqis-- the only question is whether the State Department will spend the $3 million in US taxpayer dollars appropriated to restore it first.
Yet, repatriation can easily be viewed as morally repugnant; the Iraqi State only gained custody over the belongings of departing Jews after they were forced into exile. See
http://ordinarymag.blogspot.com/2008/07/joffee-critiques-justifications-for.html
Under the circumstances, wouldn't it be better to turn over the material to the Jewish Iraqi community living abroad rather than to the Iraqi State that was responsible for persecuting Jews and eliminating Jewish culture in Iraq?
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/07/iraqi-jewish-archive.html
Repatriationists within the State Department seem hell bent on returning the material to the Iraqis-- the only question is whether the State Department will spend the $3 million in US taxpayer dollars appropriated to restore it first.
Yet, repatriation can easily be viewed as morally repugnant; the Iraqi State only gained custody over the belongings of departing Jews after they were forced into exile. See
http://ordinarymag.blogspot.com/2008/07/joffee-critiques-justifications-for.html
Under the circumstances, wouldn't it be better to turn over the material to the Jewish Iraqi community living abroad rather than to the Iraqi State that was responsible for persecuting Jews and eliminating Jewish culture in Iraq?
Death to Looters!
That at least is the implication of Professor Rothfield's suggestion that armed guards police archaeological sites and museums in places like Egypt and Iraq. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/10/arm-museum-guards-looting-war?mobile-redirect=false
While our own museums like the National Gallery of Art have some armed guards, I agree with Dorothy King that this particular proposal may lead to unnecessary deaths. See
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/07/arm-museum-guards-to-prevent-looting.html Most "looters" in places like Egypt, Iraq and Peru are "subsistence diggers" who remove treasures from the graves of their ancestors in order to put food on the table. Do we really want to encourage them being killed in the name of archaeology? As for the armed gangs of archaeological lore, to the extent they exist at all, wouldn't they likely be better armed than the guards?
Of course, every country is free to address this issue in its own way, but I also suspect that Professor Rothfield wants Western countries to fund these armed guards.
And let's not forget. Shoot the looter was the practice in Saddam's Iraq. Is this really who we want to emulate?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/10/arm-museum-guards-looting-war?mobile-redirect=false
While our own museums like the National Gallery of Art have some armed guards, I agree with Dorothy King that this particular proposal may lead to unnecessary deaths. See
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/07/arm-museum-guards-to-prevent-looting.html Most "looters" in places like Egypt, Iraq and Peru are "subsistence diggers" who remove treasures from the graves of their ancestors in order to put food on the table. Do we really want to encourage them being killed in the name of archaeology? As for the armed gangs of archaeological lore, to the extent they exist at all, wouldn't they likely be better armed than the guards?
Of course, every country is free to address this issue in its own way, but I also suspect that Professor Rothfield wants Western countries to fund these armed guards.
And let's not forget. Shoot the looter was the practice in Saddam's Iraq. Is this really who we want to emulate?
Your tax dollars at work: Fraud, Waste and Abuse at the Iraq Museum
Crusading Western archaeologists successfully lobbied for millions of dollars in US taxpayer money to be spent on Iraqi Archaeology. They further successfully lobbied for emergency import restrictions on Iraqi cultural artifacts based partly on the theory that the Iraq State was the best custodian for everything-- including common artifacts such as coins.
Was this money well spent? Should anything that looks remotely "Iraqi" be repatriated, including common artifacts like coins? Judge for yourself based upon this troubling report:
This is an interesting but distressing note about the coin [collection] in the Iraq Museum, from From Lamia al-Gailani Werr.
In the Museum they are slowly plodding through the inventory, which according to the current pace will take years. Only twenty thousands out of over two hundred thousands objects have been inventoried so far. The staff are facing many challenges, including a number of objects have lost their numbers, or metal objects that have crumbled as a the result of decades of negligence, and in particular the coins collection. Another difficulty is the lack of expertise amongst the staff to enable them to distinguish the fake from the genuine coinage.
In the Iraq Museum Library many of the old and rare archaeological books are crumbling. The Library have no expert staff to conserve the books. This can also be said for the photographic archive were conservation of the earlier photographs is lacking, and the scanning and digitising the photographic archive is not all that perfect. The staff are scanning with a resolution of 75 pixels only, because they have antiquated computers with very little memory and have no resources to purchase CDs / DVDs or USB sticks. The photographic archive rooms had a lucky escape when I was there, they got flooded one morning, the result of a test by the engineering section to check if repairs carried out to the roof had been done properly. They poured a whole tankard�s hold of water on to the roof for this purpose. The water cascaded down like a waterfall through the imperfect repairs and onto the metal cabinets in the stores and archive rooms. The staff rushed and covered everything with nylon sheets. Clearly the contracted builder�s repair was very poorly to say the least, despite a grant of three million US Dollars.
Of course, archaeological groups are again lobbying for additional millions in US taxpayer dollars being spent on Egyptian archaeology. And they have apparently already told the Egyptians that new emergency restrictions on Egyptian cultural artifacts will be imposed.
If anything, with our own budget deficits, now should be the time to scrutinze such requests far more closely.
Was this money well spent? Should anything that looks remotely "Iraqi" be repatriated, including common artifacts like coins? Judge for yourself based upon this troubling report:
This is an interesting but distressing note about the coin [collection] in the Iraq Museum, from From Lamia al-Gailani Werr.
In the Museum they are slowly plodding through the inventory, which according to the current pace will take years. Only twenty thousands out of over two hundred thousands objects have been inventoried so far. The staff are facing many challenges, including a number of objects have lost their numbers, or metal objects that have crumbled as a the result of decades of negligence, and in particular the coins collection. Another difficulty is the lack of expertise amongst the staff to enable them to distinguish the fake from the genuine coinage.
In the Iraq Museum Library many of the old and rare archaeological books are crumbling. The Library have no expert staff to conserve the books. This can also be said for the photographic archive were conservation of the earlier photographs is lacking, and the scanning and digitising the photographic archive is not all that perfect. The staff are scanning with a resolution of 75 pixels only, because they have antiquated computers with very little memory and have no resources to purchase CDs / DVDs or USB sticks. The photographic archive rooms had a lucky escape when I was there, they got flooded one morning, the result of a test by the engineering section to check if repairs carried out to the roof had been done properly. They poured a whole tankard�s hold of water on to the roof for this purpose. The water cascaded down like a waterfall through the imperfect repairs and onto the metal cabinets in the stores and archive rooms. The staff rushed and covered everything with nylon sheets. Clearly the contracted builder�s repair was very poorly to say the least, despite a grant of three million US Dollars.
Of course, archaeological groups are again lobbying for additional millions in US taxpayer dollars being spent on Egyptian archaeology. And they have apparently already told the Egyptians that new emergency restrictions on Egyptian cultural artifacts will be imposed.
If anything, with our own budget deficits, now should be the time to scrutinze such requests far more closely.
Donnie George Passes Away
Donnie George, the former director of the Iraq Museum, has passed away. See
http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2011/03/donny-george-youkhanna-rip.html
He was a somewhat controversial figure; hero to archaeologists, but he was also subject to criticism for his past service for Saddam Hussein's government and views on collectors. Sadly, although he lived long enough to see peace come to Iraq, the country was not safe enough for him to return to the land from which he was exiled, and, if anything, the fate of both his beloved Iraqi archaeology and Assyrian Christian community remain in doubt.
http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2011/03/donny-george-youkhanna-rip.html
He was a somewhat controversial figure; hero to archaeologists, but he was also subject to criticism for his past service for Saddam Hussein's government and views on collectors. Sadly, although he lived long enough to see peace come to Iraq, the country was not safe enough for him to return to the land from which he was exiled, and, if anything, the fate of both his beloved Iraqi archaeology and Assyrian Christian community remain in doubt.
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