Private collections

One of the questions raised at the Heritage Seminar on Monday was related to private collectors. We were talking about the Crosby Garrett helmet and someone raised the issue about what motivates private collectors.

I glanced across at the section of books on private (and public) collections. There were names of private collectors who purchased ex-Becchina, ex-Medici  and ex-Symes pieces. Yet some of these private individuals claim to love the past yet do not question the acquisition of newly surfaced items.

Looting in Print

I have been reviewing the literature on looted antiquities (see preliminary bibliography here). The looting of archaeological sites in Italy ranges from Karl Meyer's The Plundered Past, to Chasing Aphrodite by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. Yet the key commentaries are Peter Watson's, Sotheby's: Inside Story and (with Celia Todeschini) The Medici Conspiracy, along with Vernon Silver's The Lost Chalice. Alongside these stands Fabio Isman's I predatori dell'arte perduta.

Research publications on the antiquities trade

Here is a selection of some of the key works relating to my work on the antiquities trade and the looting question:

• (with K. Butcher) ‘Mischievous pastime or historical science?’, review article of Minerva, in Antiquity 64 (1990), 946-50. [ISSN 0003-598X] [online]
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘Material and intellectual consequences of esteem for Cycladic figures’, American Journal of Archaeology 97 (1993), 601-59. [ISSN 0002-9114] [online]
• Commentary (with C. Chippindale) on C. Morris, ‘Hands up for the individual! The role of attribution studies in Aegean prehistory’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3 (1993), 57-58 (pp. 41-66). [ISSN 0959-7743]
• (with Kevin Butcher) ‘The Director, the Dealer, the Goddess and her Champions: the Acquisition of the Fitzwilliam Goddess’, American Journal of Archaeology 97 (1993), 383-401. [ISSN 0002-9114] [online]
• ‘Publishing unprovenanced artifacts: further observations’, Electronic Antiquity 2.2 (1994). [online]
• ‘Sotheby’s, sleaze and subterfuge: inside the antiquities trade’, review article of P. Watson, Sotheby’s: inside story (London: Bloomsbury, 1997), in Antiquity 71 (1997), 468-71. [ISSN 0003-598X] [online]
• Review article of Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Antiquities (Los Angeles 1997), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1998). [ISSN 1055-7660] [online]
• (with C. Chippindale) ‘Material consequences of contemporary collecting’, American Journal of Archaeology 104.3 (2000), 463-511. [ISSN 0002-9114] [online] Supplementary tables available on-line at http://www.ajaonline.org
• (with Christopher Chippindale, Emily Salter, and Christian Hamilton) ‘Collecting the classical world: first steps in a quantitative history’, International Journal of Cultural Property 10 .1 (2001), 1-31. [ISSN 0940-7391] [online]
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘On-line auctions: a new venue for the antiquities market’, Culture Without Context 9 (2001), 4-13. [online]
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘The trade in looted antiquities and the return of cultural property: a British parliamentary inquiry’, International Journal of Cultural Property 11.1 (2002), 50-64. [ISSN 0940-7391] [online]
• Review article of Pat Getz-Gentle, Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2002). [ISSN 1055-7660] [online]
• (and Neil Brodie) ‘Looting: an international view’, in L. J. Zimmerman, K. D. Vitelli, and J. Hollowell-Zimmer (eds.), Ethical Issues in Archaeology (Walnut Creek: AltaMira; Society for American Archaeology, 2003), 31-44.
• Review of Oscar White Muscarella, The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures (Studies in the Art and Archaeology of Antiquity vol. 1; Groningen: Styx, 2000), in American Journal of Archaeology 107, 2 (2003), 285-86. [online]
• Review of Vinnie Nørskov, Greek Vases in New Contexts. The Collecting and Trading of Greek Vases - An Aspect of the Modern Reception of Antiquity (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2002), in Culture Without Context 12 (Spring 2003), 21-23. [online]
• (with Joan Padgham) ‘”One Find of Capital Importance”: a reassessment of the statue of User from Knossos’, Annual of the British School at Athens 100 (2005), 41-59.
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘From Boston to Rome: reflections on returning antiquities’, International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006), 311-31. [online]
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘From Malibu to Rome: further developments on the return of antiquities’, International Journal of Cultural Property 14 (2007), 205-40. [online]
• Review article of Stephen L. Dyson, In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: a History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2006), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2007). [ISSN 1055-7660] [online]
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘The illicit antiquities scandal: what it has done to classical archaeology collections’, review article of P. Watson and C. Todeschini, The Medici conspiracy: the illicit journey of looted antiquities from Italy's tomb raiders to the world's great museums (New York: Public Affairs, 2006), in American Journal of Archaeology 111 (2007), 571-74.
• Review of Peggy Sotirakopoulou, The "Keros Hoard": myth or reality? Searching for the lost pieces of a puzzle (Athens: N.P. Goulandris Foundation - Museum of Cycladic Art, 2005), in American Journal of Archaeology 111, 1 (2007), 163-65.
• Review of E. Robson, L. Treadwell, and L. Gosden (eds.), Who owns objects? The ethics and politics of collecting cultural artefacts (Oxford: Oxbow, 2006); and N. Brodie, M. M. Kersel, C. Luke, and K. W. Tubb (eds.), 2006. Archaeology, cultural heritage, and the antiquities trade (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006), in Journal of Field Archaeology 32.1 (2007), 103-06.
• (with Christopher Chippindale) ‘South Italian pottery in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston acquired since 1983’, Journal of Field Archaeology 33, 4 (2008), 462-72.
• ‘Homecomings: learning from the return of antiquities to Italy’, in Noah Charney (ed.), Art and crime: exploring the dark side of the art world (Santa Barbara: Praeger Press, 2009), 13-25.
• ‘Context matters: archaeological and antiquities crime’, The Journal of Art Crime 1, 1 (Spring 2009), 43-46. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘Context matters: Looting in the Balkans’, The Journal of Art Crime 2, 1 (Fall 2009), 63-66. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘Looting matters for classical antiquities: contemporary issues in archaeological ethics’, Present Pasts 1 (2009), 77-104. [ISSN 1759-2941] [online]
• Review article of James B. Cuno, Who owns antiquity? Museums and the battle over our ancient heritage (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008), in American Journal of Archaeology 113, 1 (January 2009). [online]
• Review of James Cuno, Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the battle over our ancient heritage (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008) and Sharon Waxman, Loot: The battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world (Times Books, 2008), in The Journal of Art Crime 1, 1 (Spring 2009), 65-66. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• Exhibition review: ‘Nostoi: December 2007, Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome’, in The Journal of Art Crime 1, 1 (Spring 2009), 70-71. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• Exhibition review: ‘L’Arma per l’Arte. Antologia di Meraviglie, September 2009, Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome’, in The Journal of Art Crime 2, 1 (Fall 2009), 95-96. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• Review of James Cuno (ed.), Whose Culture? The Promise of Museums and the Debate Over Antiquities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), in The Journal of Art Crime 2, 1 (Fall 2009), 99-100. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘Collecting Histories and the Market for Classical Antiquities’, The Journal of Art Crime 3, 1 (2010) 3-10. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘Context matters: Italy and the US: Reviewing Cultural Property Agreements’, The Journal of Art Crime 3, 1 (2010) 81-85. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘The Returns to Italy from North America: An Overview’, The Journal of Art Crime 3, 1 (2010) 105-09. [ISSN 1947-5934 / 1947-5926]
• ‘The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act: Protecting the archaeology of England and Wales?’, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 20 (2010) 1-11. [ISSN 0965-9315] [online] With responses from: Trevor Austin (‘The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act: Protecting the Archaeology of England and Wales? A Response’, 12-15), Paul Barford (‘Archaeology, Collectors and Preservation: a Reply to David Gill’, 16-23), Gabriel Moshenska (‘Portable Antiquities, Pragmatism and the “Precious Things”’, 24-27), Colin Renfrew (‘Comment on the Paper by David Gill’, 28-29), and Sally Worrell (‘The Crosby Garrett Helmet’, 30-32).
• ‘The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act: Protecting the archaeology of England and Wales? Reply to Austin, Barford, Moshenska, Renfrew and Worrell’, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 20 (2010) 33-40. [ISSN 0965-9315] [online]
• ‘Context matters. Greece and the U.S.: reviewing cultural property agreements’, The Journal of Art Crime 4 (2010) 73-76.

A full bibliography is available via here.

Towards a Bibliography for Looted Antiquities: the ACCG list

Following an interesting dialogue on Kimberly Alderman's blog about bibliographies relating to looted antiquities, she now notes the appearance of a new list on the ACCG website. She writes:

The ACCG bibliography is not a direct supplement to the Jarvis bibliography because it pertains to the cultural property debates generally as opposed to looting in particular, but I think it was a great idea for collectors, who felt their academic publications were underrepresented, to put together a list to round out the available resources for scholars. I have suggested that the collectors approach Jarvis and discuss how the list might be rounded out, but it does not appear anyone has done so yet.

I will not write a critique of the ACCG bibliography here. It is a mixed bag of newspaper reports, academic articles, memoranda. I note that there is nothing from the Journal of Field Archaeology that has had a regular commentary on the antiquities market since 1974; only two papers from the International Journal of Cultural Property (Fincham and Merryman); nothing by (for example) Brodie, Chippindale, Ede, Elia, Isman, Mackenzie, Miles, O'Keefe, Ortiz, Renfrew, Tubb, Vitelli, Zimmerman or even de Montebello; Appiah's Cosmopolitanism is overlooked.

The ACCG offering notes: "The bibliography that follows is supplemental to those as it focuses on resources with a more balanced perspective." Some of the works that appear under "balanced views" elsewhere on the ACCG website do not make it into the final list.

I have posted some of my recent work here.

Towards a Bibliography for Looted Antiquities: Recent Returns

Over on SAFE Corner there has been a discussion about the desirability (or otherwise) of a bibliography on the looting of antiquities. I suspect many bibliographies created for graduate (and undergraduate) students are located on university VLEs and are thus not on public view. (It would be interesting to know  what colleagues are doing and I would welcome a guest access.)

For now I offer a select bibliography for research with Christopher Chippindale (University of Cambridge) on the recent returns to Italy and Greece. I include our 2000 paper as this discusses some of the private collections that feature in the later returns (see also a relevant interview in The New Yorker).

• Chippindale, C., and D. W. J. Gill.  2000. "Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting." American Journal of Archaeology 104: 463-511.
• Gill, D. W. J. 2009a. "Homecomings: learning from the return of antiquities to Italy." In Art and Crime: exploring the dark side of the art world, edited by N. Charney: 13-25. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
• —. 2009b. "Looting matters for classical antiquities: contemporary issues in archaeological ethics." Present Pasts 1: 77-104.
• —. 2009c. "Exhibition review: Nostoi. December 2007, Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome." The Journal of Art Crime 1: 70-71.
• —. 2010a. "The returns to Italy from North America: an overview." Journal of Art Crime 3: 105-09.
• —. 2010b. "Collecting histories and the market for classical antqiuities." Journal of Art Crime 3: 3-10.
• Gill, D. W. J., and C. Chippindale. 2006. "From Boston to Rome: reflections on returning antiquities." International Journal of Cultural Property 13: 311-31.
• —. 2007. "From Malibu to Rome: further developments on the return of antiquities." International Journal of Cultural Property 14: 205-40.
• —. 2007. "The illicit antiquities scandal: what it has done to classical archaeology collections." American Journal of Archaeology 111: 571-74.
• —. 2008. "South Italian pottery in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston acquired since 1983." Journal of Field Archaeology 33: 462-72.

Towards a Bibliography for Archaeological Ethics

I have been preparing an introductory bibliography on Archaeological Ethics for my postgraduate students. This is at present located as a list on WorldCat. You can easily see the location of the nearest copy of the book to you (just type in your postcode or zipcode), or download (including to Endnote).

What would readers of Looting Matters recommend?

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