Contemporary Classical Collecting

I was delighted to see that my article "Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting", written with Christopher Chippindale (University of Cambridge), has appeared in the Times Higher Education (July 23, 2009) list of "Highly Cited Papers in Classical Studies Since 2000". We were ranked no. 8.

The commentary notes that the ten papers in the THE list "are deserving of note as research works that demonstrably have had influence".

Reference
Chippindale, C., and D. W. J. Gill. 2000. "Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting." American Journal of Archaeology 104: 463-511. [JSTOR] [Abstract and tables]

The nature of contemporary Classical collecting is explored by studying seven celebrated new collections and exhibitions. The concept of provenance is defined in terms of an object's origins, or findspot, and its modern story, or history. The several hundred objects in these collections are analyzed in terms of their findspot and history since unearthing. These show that the dismaying picture previously demonstrated for Cycladic antiquities applies to Classical objects across the board: the overwhelming majority have no declared or credible findspots and simply surface as orphans without history. Some of the many material aspects of this central fact are explored.