Stolen, Smuggled, Sold
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Cultural objects, we have come to see, reflect a universe of people’s legitimate claims and desires. Although there is a raft of national laws, international protocols, and professional practices governing the objects that are stolen, smuggled, and illicitly sold, the same basic question remains: who should own the world’s cultural treasures?
There is no single answer to this question. I struggle with the conflicting rights and ethical issues it raises. But sometimes I imagine all the cultural treasures now sitting in all the museums and rare book libraries and archives in the world. I picture them breaking free from their dark storage crypts and the glass prisons of their display cases. I see them slowly ascending to the heavens. I imagine following along as they glide over land and ocean until they reach their homelands and gently descend to the place where they belong.
Notes
1. “Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property,” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Paris: 12 October to 14 November 1970), Article I, http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13039&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html .
2. Ibid.
3. Jeremy Haken, Transactional Crime in The Developing World (Washington, DC: Global Financial Integrity, 2011), 47–49, http://www.gfintegrity.org/report/briefing-paper-transnational-crime/.
4. Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art (Washington, DC: 1998),http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rt/hlcst/122038.htm.
5. Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal, “The Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal Project” (Washington, DC: American Alliance of Museums),www.nepip.org.
6. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Database of National Cultural Laws, http://www.unesco.org/culture/natlaws/.
7. Frauds and Swindles, 18 U.S. Code §1341, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1341.
8. Fraud By Wire, Radio, or Television, 18 U.S. Code §1343, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343.
9. Smuggling Goods into the United States, 18 U.S. Code §545, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/545.
10. Entry of Goods By Means of False Statements, 18 U.S. Code §542, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/542.
11. Transportation of Stolen Goods, Securities, Moneys, Fraudulent State Tax Stamps, or Articles Used in Counterfeiting,18 U.S. Code §2314, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2314.
12. Theft of Major Artwork, 18 U.S. Code §668, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/668.
13. United Nations, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols (New York: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004), http://www.unodc.org/unodc/treaties/CTOC.
14. “International Criminal Court,” http://www.icc-cpi.int.
15. “Smithsonian: Museum Studies,” http://museumstudies.si.edu.
16. http://provenanceresearch.org.
17. “Trafficking Culture,” http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/sociology/groups/traffickingculture/.
18. Simon Mackenzie and Tess Davis, “Temple Looting in Cambodia,” British Journal of Criminology (June 13, 2014).
19. Andrea Thomas, “Swiss Museum Accepts Art from Late Dealer Cornelius Gurlitt,” The Wall Street Journal (November 20, 2014).
20. Wesley A. Fischer and Ruth Weinberger, “Holocaust-Era Looted Art: A Current Worldwide Overview,” Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and World Jewish Restitution Organization (September 2014).
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Garner, Dwight. “The Meteoric Rise, and Decline, of a Talented Young Writer,” New York Times, June 8, 2010.
Greenfield, Jeanette. The Return of Cultural Treasures, 3rd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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Harris, Lucien. “German Court Orders Return of Ancient Vessel To Iraq But the Gold Vase Is Still Believed To Be Held in Germany Pending an Appeal,” The Art Newspaper, November 18, 2009.
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Interview with Michael Müller-Karpe (Curator, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum), in discussion with the author, September 3, 2013.
Interview with James Nason and Megon Noble (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
at the University of Washington in Seattle), in discussion with the author, August 3, 2012.
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18 U.S. Code §668. Theft of Major Artwork. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/668.
18 U.S. Code §1341. Frauds and Swindles. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1341.
18 U.S. Code §1343. Fraud By Wire, Radio, or Television. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343.
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Additional Reading
Chapter 1: The Lady in the Jeweled Dog Collar
Lillie, Sophie, and Georg Gaugusch. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. New York: Neue Gallerie, 2007.
Nichols, Lynn Holman. Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 1995.
O’Connor, Ann-Marie. The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.
Weiner, Rebecca. “The Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Vienna.html.
Whitford, Frank. Klimt. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990.
Chapter 2: The Case of the Missing Masterpiece
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. New York: The John Day Company, 1931.
Conn, Peter. Pearl S. Buck, a Cultural Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Chapter 3: Ghost Dancing at Wounded Knee
Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1973, unabridged replication of the accompanying paper, “The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890,” of the Fourteenth Annual Report (Part 2) of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-93, by J.W. Powell, Director, originally published by the Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1896.
Chapter 4: Babe Ruth on a Quail Hunt
Anne-Catherine Fallen and Kevin Osborn, eds. Records of Our National Life: American History and the National Archives. London, UK: The Foundation for the National Archives, 2009.
Chapter 5: The Only Pharaoh Outside
of Egypt
Baker, Darrell D. Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300-1069 BC, Volume 1. London: Bannerstone Press, 2008.
Belzoni, Giovanni Battista. Travels in Egypt and Nubia. Vercelli, Italy: White Star Publishers, 2007.
Dunand, Francoise, and Roger Lichtenberg. Mummies and Death in Egypt. Translated from the French by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Edwards, Amelia B. Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1891.
Tomb of Rameses I, Theban Mapping Project. Information can be found at: www.thebanmappingproject.com.
Chapter 6: Selling History
Barrett, John. Sherman’s March through the Carolinas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1956.
Howard, David. Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Simpson, Kenrick N. Liberty and Freedom: North Carolina’s Tour of the Bill of Rights. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 2007.
Chapter 7: Sumerian Plunder
Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1977.