antiquities trade (Other Keyword)
1-6 (6 Records)
During the Colonial era, numerous "trophy skulls" from various Indo-Pacific cultures entered Western museum and private collections, and continue to be sought as "authentic" collector’s items. However, very little bioarchaeological research exists investigating their provenience, intra-cultural variation in decoration and manufacture, and how examples created for Indigenous ritual use differed from those created for sale to Colonial explorers at the beginning of ‘curio’ trade, let alone what...
Designer Antiquities: A Current Trend in the Not so Honest Antiquities Trade (2017)
The fine art of creating new or composite styles of (supposed) antiquities has a long and ignoble history, beginning, as far as we know for the Americas, in the 16th century. It appeared again, full steam ahead, with "Tlatelolco Ware" in the late 19th century. Today, with increasing legal controls of antiquities importation and vending, this art has arisen again. Pieces claiming to be one thing while actually being entirely new stylistic creations, given the names of popular, but little known...
From the Ground, Up: The Looting of Vườn Chuối in Archeological and Criminological Context (2017)
The exact nature of the illicit antiquities trade from ground to market in Southeast Asia remains poorly known outside of Thailand and Cambodia, where most research has been focused. This paper helps to address this imbalance by documenting and contextualizing looting activities at the Bronze and Iron Age site of Vườn Chuối, located within urban Hanoi. We provide a brief excavation history so as to place looting into archaeological and bioarchaeological contexts, and discuss current and future...
Good Collectors of Archaeological Artifacts from the Holy Land? (2017)
In an ideal world there would be no looting, selling, or collecting of archaeological artifacts. But, given the centuries old lure of material from the Middle East, it is unrealistic and naïve to think that there will be a cessation of collecting. This desire for Holy Land antiquities has resulted in a bifurcated community of consumption: those willing to purchase undocumented artifacts, and Good Collectors, the discerning individuals and institutions who ask questions about archaeological find...
The Kapoor Case: International collaboration on antiquities provenance research (2015)
Manhattan antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor faces trial in India as the alleged mastermind of an international idol smuggling network. A year-long investigation by researchers, journalists, art aficionados and law enforcement on three continents established the illicit origins for more than a dozen ancient objects allegedly trafficked by Kapoor. In September 2014, Australian museums returned two of those objects to India -- a 10th century Shiva Nataraja purchased by the National Gallery of...
Syria: Cultural Property Protection Policy Failure? (2015)
International ‘cultural property protection’ policy is structured around two UNESCO Conventions: the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Together, these conventions encourage a policy which aims at cultural site protection at source and the recovery and restitution of stolen or otherwise illicitly-traded...