Showing results 49 - 60 of 103 for the tag: Guardian.

March 14, 2012

Rioting & looting – then and now

Posted at 2:08 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

When the UK was beset by episodes of riots & looting in August 2011, parliament was (quite rightly) quick to condemn the actions of a small minority. It seems though that many of our museums are filled with artefacts acquired through episodes of similar behaviour – the only difference being that it took place in the past & in foreign countries.

On a similar note, some in the UK were quick to sit back smugly during the looting of Egypt’s museums, noting that it was fortunate that the UK had so many of their antiquities to protect them from such episodes. One wonders though, during bouts of lawlessness in the UK, whether the same people support the idea of shipping British artefacts abroad to safer places… permanently… with little chance of ever getting them back – and little choice in the matter?

From:
Guardian

UK riots: When is a looter a heroic entrepreneur?
Edward Lawrence
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 August 2011 10.00 BST

Parliament denounced the 21st century Britons who looted their own high street, but 18th century looters who plundered distant nations to build the British Empire became heroes

The scenes of widespread mayhem and looting that were the main news items of the last week were profoundly shocking, and for me personally, a cause of deep anxiety. Because of my disability I felt vulnerable, which isn’t a sensation I exactly relish. It isn’t as if since my severe brain injury I have had a surfeit of good experiences.
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March 13, 2012

The Manga, the Museum & the Marbles

Posted at 2:02 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

The new Manga book about the British Museum (& also involving the Parthenon Marbles) has now been published in English.

From:
Guardian

The British Museum: marbles, murals… and manga!
Meet Professor Munakata, the crime-fighting archaeologist who saves one of London’s best-loved institutions from looters
Mike Pitts
Sunday 14 August 2011 19.59 BST

With its crumbling pillars and fading frescoes, the British Museum isn’t the first thing you’d associate with Japanese graphic novels. So it’s a slight surprise to learn that the museum will soon publish its own manga-based book.

Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure was serialised last year in Japan and has now been now translated into English. Its star – a portly ethnographer-cum-archaeologist who solves crimes and explains civilisations – is already well known to millions of Japanese readers, who follow his exploits in a series of Hoshino Yukinobu-penned comics. Hoshino’s work is blend of science fiction and thriller, layered with a rich mix of western and Asian myth and history.
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January 25, 2012

Efforts by British collector to rescue Afghan artefact

Posted at 2:02 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

An anonymous art dealer, is trying to purchase an artefact, believed to have been looted from Afghanistan, with the sole aim of returning it. Interestingly, the British Museum is getting involved – clearly repatriation is much more important for recently taken artefacts than it is for older ones (that are already in their collection).

From:
Guardian

Prized Afghan antiquity is rescued by British art dealer
Gandharan Buddha will be on show at the British Museum until mid-July
Dalya Alberge
Sunday 29 May 2011 00.04 BST

An anonymous art dealer passionate about Afghan heritage has teamed up with the British Museum in an effort to buy and repatriate a spectacular antiquity believed to have been looted from the Afghan national museum in Kabul during the 1990s.

The British dealer, who said he had a “very strong emotional attachment” to Afghanistan, resolved to buy the 2nd-century Gandharan Buddha after he recognised it in a photograph sent by a colleague in Japan. The sculpture, which had disappeared in the bloody civil war, had been bought by a Japanese collector.
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December 6, 2011

Does the return of artefacts sometimes diminish their value?

Posted at 2:14 pm in Similar cases

This article has an interesting ending – when art works are returned mainly for the purpose of being re-sold, it can often mean that the gains are not without losses. This contrasts of course to cases such as that of the Parthenon Marbles (& many other high profile cases), where the intention is to display them in the country where they were originally created, rather than to use them as a method of financial compensation.

From:
Guardian

Online database of art looted by Nazis points to a more complex history
Jonathan Jones
Thursday 5 May 2011 17.02 BST

Hitler’s looting of artworks was not exceptional. The quest to find them is really an expression of revulsion at his true crimes

A troubling detail caught my eye in the new online archive of documents relating to art works looted by the Nazis. At the first meeting of the British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art in 1944, the critic Kenneth Clark “drew attention to the reported destruction of churches such as San Francesco at Arezzo”, which, he said, “suggested that our bombing was not always accurate”.
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November 10, 2011

Stolen Greek artefacts in London gallery

Posted at 2:04 pm in Greece Archaeology, Similar cases

More coverage of the looted Greek artefacts spotted recently in a London gallery.

From:
Guardian

Stolen Greek relics found in London

• Six items on sale had been removed in last 10 years
• Find hints at international network of smugglers
Helena Smith in Athens
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 March 2011 19.20 GMT

Six stolen icons discovered in an art gallery near the Greek embassy in London have become the focus of a police inquiry as Athens tries to unravel how the religious works ended up on the international art market.

The magnificent pieces, painted over 200 years ago in typical Byzantine fashion, adorned Orthodox monasteries and churches in remote northern Greece until they were snatched by thieves.
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October 27, 2011

Is it time to re-consider the importance of free museum admission

Posted at 1:30 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

In the face of UK public spending cutbacks, more & more people are questioning the free museum admission policy. Certainly, it is nice for everyone to be able to use them for free, but does this sometimes occur to the detriment of the visitor experience?

From:
Guardian

We need to start charging for museums and galleries again
Reintroducing entrance fees for the great collections should be a plank of government arts planning
Tristram Hunt
The Observer, Sunday 6 March 2011

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent is, according to author AN Wilson, “the greatest museum in the world”. Its ceramics collection is rivalled only by the V&A, its Arnold Bennett archive is bettered only by the British Library and its Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasures is second only to the British Museum.

But while it is free to visit the V&A, the British Library and Museum, an entrance fee is set to be charged in Stoke. Across the country, eye-watering cuts to local authority budgets mean that councils are either closing museums or ratcheting up charges. Last week, artist Anish Kapoor accused the Tories of having a “castration complex” about the arts. Yet, in the midst of this, the teeming London museums continue to enjoy a state subsidy to retain free admission.
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June 23, 2011

British Prime Minister does not want the Elgin Marbles returned

Posted at 2:39 pm in Elgin Marbles, Marbles Reunited

More coverage of David Cameron’s rebuttal of Andrew George’s Prime Minister’s Questions on the Parthenon Marbles.

You can watch the video coverage of it on the BBC’s website. The relevant part is 20:40 into the clip.

From:
The Guardian

David Cameron rejects call to return Parthenon marbles to Greece
PM dismisses suggestion by Liberal Democrat that collection of classical Greek marble sculptures should be returned to Athens
Hélène Mulholland, political reporter, Wednesday 22 June 2011 14.50 BST

David Cameron has rejected a call for Britain to “put right a wrong” that dates back just short of two centuries by returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece.

Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, reopened the issue of the marble sculptures, currently in the British Museum, when he incorporated the Greek financial crisis in a Commons question.
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April 19, 2011

Why Cairo’s antiquities must be protected

Posted at 12:52 pm in Similar cases

Some more of the many articles calling for the protection of Cairo’s artefacts – a position that of course contradicts the fact that many of the museums of the west acquired large amounts of their collections amid similar scenes of chaos & lawlessness as the ones currently being seen in Egypt – & the fact that they were willing purchasers only added an incentive to would be looters.

From:
Guardian

Tomb raiders: why does no one care about Cairo’s Egyptian Museum?

Judging by reports from Cairo, the west does not understand that one of the greatest antiquity collections on Earth is in danger

If petrol bombs were being thrown in St Marks Square in Venice, or outside the British Museum, what would reports say? We would never stop hearing about the threat to humanity’s cultural heritage. Yet, as I scan the news sites for the latest reports from Cairo, it is strange how little stress has been placed on the unique importance and fragility of the contents of the Egyptian Museum, which stands at the very heart of the unfolding tragedy. That is why I must reiterate my previous attempt to draw attention to this silent witness and victim of events.
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February 17, 2011

Stolen Cypriot icon returned by Boy George

Posted at 2:10 pm in Similar cases

More coverage of the Cypriot icon returned by Boy George after he discovered that it had been looted.

From:
Guardian

Boy George returns lost icon to Cyprus church
Singer had no idea the religious artefact hanging above his fireplace was looted from a Cypriot church in 1974
Sean Michaels
Thursday 20 January 2011 12.32 GMT

Boy George has returned a stolen Cypriot artefact that had been missing for almost 40 years. The singer said he was unaware that an icon of Jesus Christ which had hung in his living room for decades was looted from a church in Nicosia. Church officials noticed the portrait during a TV interview with Boy George, where it appeared in the background.

The Culture Club singer bought the artefact “with good faith” from a London art dealer in 1985. “[I] have looked after the icon for 26 years,” he told BBC News. “[I’m] happy it is going back to its original rightful home.”
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December 30, 2010

British Museum to take over some roles from defunct government quango

Posted at 8:00 pm in British Museum

Following on from this earlier article, it appears that the British Museum once again being treated as an organisation that is not entirely independent of the government.

In this instance, the British Museum is taking over the role of administering the Portable Antiquities Scheme from the MLA which is being disbanded. This is an interesting development, as while it can be carried out by any organisation, it does to a certain extent pull the museum closer to the government, removing some of its independence & impartiality. This separation from the government is regularly emphasised when dealing with restitution requests, where the assertion is made that they are a matter to be dealt with entirely by the trustees of the British Museum. At the same time though, actions such as this & the previous one over denial of access to funding indicate that the government continues to maintain a strong hold over the museum & could, if it chose to, influence the actions of the museum.

From:
Museums Association

ACE takes over MLA functions
Sharon Heal
23.11.10

Speaking this morning at the British Museum, culture minister Ed Vaizey announced that Arts Council England (ACE) is likely to take over the functions of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).

If approved, all of MLA’s functions will transfer to ACE, including Renaissance, cultural property and accreditation by March 2012. The export reviewing committee, the government indemnity scheme and the acceptance in lieu scheme will also be transferred.
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December 9, 2010

Can the British Museum forget the idea of imperialist looting and acquisitions?

Posted at 10:30 pm in Similar cases

As mentioned previously, Neil MacGregor’s series, A history of the world in 100 objects has now finished and has doubtlessly been more successful than the BBC ever imagined it would be. It has however provided a colossal platform for Neil MacGregor (and thus the British Museum’s) viewpoint.

Mary Beard argues here that the series manages to “Forget the idea of imperialist looting or acquisitiveness”, but I’m wondering whether this is not more a case of wishful thinking by the British Museum that people would forget it, as the reality is that for many people (mostly located outside the UK & not necessarily Radio 4 or World Service” listeners), the imperialist looting which is perpetuated today within the British Museum is a continuing source of anguish.

From:
Guardian

A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor – review
Brilliant on radio, Neil MacGregor’s 100 objects also make a marvellous book, says Mary Beard
Mary Beard
The Guardian, Saturday 13 November 2010

Chapter 33 of Neil MacGregor’s marvellous book-of-the-radio-series is about the Rosetta stone. This lump of granite from Egypt, “about the size of one of those large suitcases you see people trundling around on wheels at airports”, is, as he frankly admits, “decidedly dull to look at”. It earns its place in A History of the World in 100 Objects because in the 19th century the equally dull text – on tax breaks for priests, inscribed upon it, in three different languages (Greek, demotic Egyptian and hieroglyphs) – became the key to decoding the hieroglyphic script of the ancient pharaohs.

But, more than that, the stone also has a powerful modern history of its own. It was fought over by French and British troops at the end of the Napoleonic wars, and finally taken to London. MacGregor is one of the few to point out that it is actually inscribed in four, not three, languages: on its side, we can still read, in English, “Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801.”
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October 30, 2010

Will Iran claim ownership of the Cyrus Cylinder?

Posted at 1:13 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

The British Museum delayed the loan of the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran for a long time due to worries over the security of the loan & guarantees that the artefacts would be returned afterwards. After extensive re-assurances, the loan eventually went ahead. Many in Iran are still questioning whether it should be returned to the British Museum when the four months are up.

From:
Guardian

Iran lays claim to British Museum’s Cyrus Cylinder
Conservative Iranian newspaper raises concern that rare 6th century BC Babylonian artefact may not be returned
# Ian Black and Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Wednesday 15 September 2010 20.06 BST

It was not an easy decision for the British Museum to lend one of its most treasured artefacts to a country which has a notoriously prickly relationship with the UK. So curators in London are paying close attention to an Iranian threat not to return the famous Cyrus Cylinder — now embroiled in political intrigue in the Islamic Republic.

The 6th century BC Babylonian object, sometimes described as the world’s first human rights charter, arrived in Iran at the weekend and is due to be displayed for four months at the national museum.
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