Monday, November 06, 2017

Against "Displacement": A Thought about Hilgert's "Culture Matters"

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In "Why Culture Matters," Markus Hilgert asserts that the importance of culture lies in its "fostering  identity through c...
Wednesday, August 16, 2017

100 antiquities police officers needed, 7 on the books

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Laws against looting and smuggling are meaningless if the state doesn't enforce them. This simple truth is nearly always ignored by her...

A due diligence checklist -- the starting point for a calibrated taxing system for antiquities or for a registration system

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Matthew Bogdanos and Amr al-Azm provide a helpful list of due diligence red flag indicators for insurers, dealers, auction houses and coll...
Tuesday, August 15, 2017

A possible second-best solution for orphaned antiquities?

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This article in the New York Times describes how one art collector donated a work to the Prado, noting that  he will be eligible for a t...
Wednesday, October 26, 2016

U.S. Senators are pushing for Native American Artifact legislation -- but will it do any good?

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Here's a news story on the proposed legislation. Two pieces, count-'em two! Well, one is just a resolution. The other, STOP,  sta...
Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Libya: Cultural Racketeering by the Actual Mafia and What it Tells Us about How It Should Be Fought

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Informative piece on Libya's struggle to protect its archaeological sites in the absence of a strong centralized government. Several ...
Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Parcak's Peru Project: What about the looters?

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First things first. Sarah Parcak's project is awesome. So is Larry Coben's Sustainable Preservation Initiative. And the possibilit...
Friday, December 25, 2015

If Florence can lease its piazzas, why can't museums lease antiquities to raise $ to protect sites?

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Florence is leasing the Palazzo Vecchio , the Ponte Vecchio, the Piazza d'Ognisannti, the Belvedere... the list goes on and on. A lot o...