Art’s Dilemma
“That’s it?!” I remarked to my dad
as we walked around the Lebanese National Museum. After our road trips to the
various ruins such as the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, I expected a behemoth
of a museum storing various Anatolian and Phoenician artifacts, but was instead
faced with a space a quarter of the size of the Art Institute in Chicago. I
walked out sorely disappointed while my father told me about the destruction
and looting the museum suffered during the Civil War (1975-1990) in addition to
Lebanon’s history as a French colony. Later that year my elementary school
class took a trip up to the Oriental Institute of UChicago and to my disbelief
I encountered a couple of collections that rivaled that of the Lebanese
National Museum. These memories have lain dormant in the back of my mind until we
read Ragtime and Mumbo Jumbo in class this year.
In Mumbo Jumbo, America is described
as “Europe’s last hope, the protector of the archives of mankind’s achievements.”
In addition we get the line that the art collections in the West are heavily
protected “justifiably so, because if these treasure got into the ‘wrong hands’
(the countries from which they were stolen) there would be renewed enthusiasm
for the Ikons of the aesthetically victimized civilizations.” Today, many artifacts
displayed in America’s and Europe’s museums were taken from their colonies and in
times of instability people have looted historical sites to sell artifacts that
have made it into individual and public collections. While there have been
requests from various countries for the return of nationally important
artifacts from western museums there is a prevailing attitude of unwillingness
to permanently reinstate the artifacts. In some cases, the art has been loaned
back for periods of time such as a series of African artwork in 2006 that were
put on view in Cotonou that drew “275,000 visitors in an African country where
people do not usually go to museums.” Oftentimes the excuse of not returning
the artwork to Africa or the Middle East is that of their fear that the artwork
may get stolen or destroyed in the unstable countries. However, I find that
this argument really doesn’t stand for Asian art collections.
While there is a bit of a dilemma
about returning artifacts publicly displayed in western museums to unstable
countries, I believe that the private collection of artifacts that are a part
of a country’s history and culture should be disallowed. Wealthy people, like
the fictional JP Morgan in Ragtime, should not be allowed to horde and obtain
artifacts just for their own pleasure or ego. Oftentimes, their methods of
obtaining these artifacts are illegal just like when the Hobby Lobby chain
store was forced to return 5,500 illegally smuggled artifacts, including
ancient cuneiform clay tablets, to Iraq in 2017. Private collections also enable
and encourage looters because of the lack of public scrutiny over how the
artifacts where obtained, leading to situations where objects stolen from
Lebanon ended up on loan from a private collection in the MET in 2017. This is
not a victimless crime.
What do you think? I do believe that
it is dangerous to return artifacts to unstable countries where the chance of
losing them are high, but there is something extremely unsettling about
learning more about your cultural heritage in a completely different country. Who
has the historical ownership?
I completely agree with your point, I think it's no right for other people who are not a part of your culture to decide what's right or wrong for your culture. I think it's frustrating to see people play the part of "its too dangerous, what if we lose the artifact" because those artifacts may hold a lot of meaning for some. It's the fault of the colonizers that the artifacts ended up in the wrong place so they should definitely try to bring it back. Whats the point of learning about your culture somewhere else? If the artifacts are in an unstable country, the cultural significance and meaning will be greater because it brings emotional support and hope for those in the country.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this blog I had no idea as to how many ancient or cultural artifacts end up in museums and I can't really look at museums the same anymore. The "what if the artifact gets stolen or lost" argument is pretty irritating since those artifacts don't really technically belong to museums in the first place. It's like someone taking away your phone because they're afraid you might crack it and just keeping the phone. Also the example of JP Morgan can still be relevant today. There are probably plenty of rich people around the world who have ancient artifacts that were taken during times of instability and should be returned out of respect for culture.
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