Kwame Opoku responds to this piece on Antiquities Watch.

From:
Afrikanet

Datum: 11.03.09 16:03
Kategorie: Kultur-Kunst
Von: Dr. Kwame Opoku
Mine is mine but yours is ours Comments on a suggestion to take culture out of cultural property

I enjoyed reading the article entitled “Yours, Mine, Ours: Taking the Culture out of Cultural Property” in Antiquities Watch (1) and I have sympathy for some of the views expressed there. It is an interesting article and offers food for thought. However, when I started to reflect on a few of the ideas expressed therein, many difficulties appeared.

The author refers to the increased interest in cultural property matters and the fact that “cultural property is drawing on an increasing range of cultures, nations, and sentiments involving both.” He poses the question whether this is “hurting the causes of restitution and cultural property protection? Are we, by politicizing art and antiquities, jeopardizing their protection, if not original meaning?”
Read the rest of this entry »