Kwame Opoku on the "Declaration of ... Universal Museums" ten years on

Download Kwame Opoku, "Declaration on ...Universal Museums: Singular Failure of an Arrogant Imperialist Project" on MSN, as usual, hard hitting, copiously annotated and right.

The Declaration on the Importance and Value of the Universal Museum (DIVUM) of 2002 in now 10 years old. [...] The DIVUM is a very remarkable document that differs essentially from other declarations and documents that include in their title “Universal”, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Whereas the latter aims at uplifting mankind from the miserable and abject conditions into which it has been plunged by unjust and oppressive systems and conditions, DIVUM was aimed at consolidating the results of oppressive systems and preventing the victims from attempting to reverse the results of imperialist adventures. In effect DIVUM was advancing the argument that there should be no attempt to seek to reverse the transfer of artefacts that had been acquired under colonial and other violent and oppressive conditions [...] The British Museum which had engineered the whole project was not one of the signatories but the handwriting of the museum’s officials is all over the document; the language and style of the DIVUM can be traced to Bloomsbury, London.

Anuradhapura style Sandakada Pahana "found" in UK

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A carved granite step (Sandakada Pahana - aka a moon stone) from a Hindu temple "featuring a cow and other animals" and similar to those found in the ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka has been "found" in the garden of a Devon bungalow in the UK. Now the "finders" think it is the right thing for them to do is to flog it off at Bonhams, the reasons for the sale are not given. So this piece of thousand-year old translocated Srilankan heritage will be sold on the London antiquities market in Bonhams "Indian and Islamic" sale in London on April 23. This object is neither Indian nor Islamic, the temple step is a feature unique to Sinhalese architecture in Sri Lanka. It is being toted as a "magnificent work of art" rather than a ripped-out piece of an integral work of architecture.  The three-quarters of a ton stone measure eight feet by four feet and is six inches thick, and is one of only six examples known to date from this period, making this discovery the seventh. It is estimated to attract bids in excess of £30,000.

Although the object was "found" in the UK by a member of the public in their garden and is more than 300 years old, it does not feature in Britain's Portable Antiquities database which legitimates "finding" portable antiquities in England and (for the moment) Wales. Sam Tuke of Bonhams in Exeter says of the discovery:

"I met the client when she was collecting an item from our office. She mentioned in passing that she had a large slab of carved granite that had come from her mother's house in Sussex and that she had known and loved it since she was four years old. She loved running her fingers around the animals carved into the stone." "When I saw the photographs and she explained the full story, I knew that it could be of great historical interest and importance. The house in Sussex had been bought from a tea planter in the 1950s and the stone had been moved six times. Her brother had seen similar stones in Sri Lanka while on holiday. She explained that she could not bear to leave the stone behind after her father died and the house was sold. "It has been known affectionately in the family as 'The Pebble' and is currently lying outside the front of their bungalow at the end of a concrete path." 

Note the lack of names. The actual circumstances under which the item left Sri lanka are important, according to the Bonhams provenance, the item first "surfaces" at a date referred to as "in the 1950s" (the owner surely can provide a better date for the purchase of a house whose deeds they had on their father's death) so the export must have taken place before that (rather imprecise date). But when? The importance of this is that before the "in the 1950s" there are two local acts of legislation which have a bearing on the potential legal status of this item:

Sri Lanka	1940	The Antiquities Ordinance, N. 9 of 1940
Sri Lanka	1955	Antiquities Act N.2

So, how thoroughly have Bonhams actually checked that rather sketchy collecting history beyond the (unverified/ verified?) anecdote about seller as a four year old girl? Note how carefully it is stressed that after the father's death the object was allegedly "moved six times". Did the item leave Sri lanka when Anuradhapura was in a British colony, a Dominion (1948-72), or (despite the alleged collecting history) was independent?


Here is a link to an amateur video of one of the other six that no tea-planter dug up for himself and carted off to England to later dump unwanted in a Sussex garden.

Here's the picture of the carted-off one in a Bonhams press release.  I think we'd all like to see Sri Lanka try and get this ripped-off piece of a Srilankan monument back, and not being flogged off to some wealthy private collector gd-knows-where.
 
 Art Daily, 'Anuradhapura style Sandakada Pahana found in UK', Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)  13 January 2013

Photo: Trapit archaeology blog

Hat-tip to MSN

Turkey: Ertuğrul Günay interviewd

There is an interview in Hürriyet Daily News with Turkey's Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay. While the most obvious characteristic of the text is ("Fortress Turkey" against the world) national pride (it stresses how the Minister claims that his current policy of attempting to get illicitly obtained antiquities back to Turkey is causing panic in foreign museums), it contains much else besides. Including these two segments:

Turkey is accused of double standards and has been sent the message that it also has archaeological artifacts in its hands that it will need to return.

I have no problem with that. If there is international legislation that says all artifacts are to be exhibited on their original soil, we will return everything. But we are in a different situation. Pieces came from Saida and Sur [in Lebanon] – they were Ottoman lands. We have not stolen them from other countries; we have not exploited a lack of awareness or abused some so-called agreements. Our scientists who went there worked legally, like Osman Hamdi Bey and brought back some artifacts. However, if one day there is an international legislation that says, those artifacts that are from lands that are no longer within your borders, we’ll do it. But if we return 200 [artifacts], then the world will have to return back 20,000 artifacts to Turkey.

So you are committed to remaining strong against the anti-Turkish lobby.

Very much so. Actually this lobby is not only against us but against the awakening of all Eastern Europe and Near Asia. Western museums are very concerned about the establishment of a joint policy in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. There is nothing stolen in our museums or in Greece’s museums. But European museums are full of artifacts from Turkey, Greece, Iraq and Syria. That’s why they’re worrying.

There is also passing reference to banning metal detector use, which is unclear.

The Trade in African Cultural Property: "Je ne suis pas moi-même" (2007)

Je ne suis pas moi-même is a 52 minute Spanish 2007 documentary film produced by Nanouk Films which explores complex international African ethnic art market. Mysterious figurines pass from hand to hand, crossing continents and changing in value and meaning. The film concentrates on the  movement of objects from Cameroon, and reveals how Cameroon has become a paradise for art forgers and traffickers and is related to corruption. It also shows how African artworks are spirited away to end up in Europe's leading public and private collections, where they come from, and how they arrive in the showcases of the biggest galleries and collections in Europe. It also explores who decides how much each piece is worth in this post-colonial context. In Europe there's a market needy of new ethnic art pieces. In Africa they’re in need of economical resources, some are willing to sell their cultural legacy or even fake it if need be. The limits of authenticity grow blurry when sacred objects are sold by those who adored them a very short time ago.

Directed by Alba Mora & Anna Sanmartí
Producer: Ventura Durall
Screenplay by Alba Mora, Anna Sanmartí
Starring Jonas Njifouta, Ahmadou Mboumbou, Fabien Essiane
Music by Pol Ponsarnau
Editing by Vep Culleré

Watch the documentary: Je ne suis pas moi-même
Shortened trailer

Comments by  David Norden

Ten Years Old: Declaration on the importance and value of universal museums"

This document is ten years old today, how well have the ideas it embodies weathered that decade?

Declaration on the importance and value of universal museums
The international museum community shares the conviction that illegal traffic in archaeological artistic, and ethnic objects must be firmly discouraged. We should, however, recognize that objects acquired in earlier times must be viewed in the light of different sensitivities and values, reflective of that earlier era. The objects arid monumental works that were installed decades and even centuries ago in museums throughout Europe and America were acquired under conditions that are not comparable with current ones.

Over time, objects so acquired-whether by purchase, gift, or partage - have become part of the museums that have cared for them, and by extension part of the heritage of the nations which house them. Today we are especially sensitive to the subject of a work's original context, but we should not lose sight of the fact that museums too provide a valid and valuable context for objects that were long ago displaced from their original source.

The universal admiration for ancient civilizations would not be so deeply established today were it not for the influence exercised by the artifacts of these cultures, widely available to ail international public in major museums. Indeed, the sculpture of classical Greece, to take but one example, is an excellent illustration of this point and of the importance of public collecting. The centuries - long history of appreciation of Greak art began in antiquity, was renewed in Renaissance Italy, and subsequently spread through the rest of Europe and to the Americas. Its accession into the collections of public museums throughout the world marked the significance of Greek sculpture for mankind as a whole and its enduring value for the contemporary world. Moreover, the distinctly Greek aesthetic of these works appears all the more strongly as the result of their being seen and studied in direct proximity to products of other great civilizations.

Calls to repatriate objects that have belonged to museum collections for many years have become an important issue for museums. Although each case has to be judged individually, we should acknowledge that museums serve not just the citizens of one nation but the people of every nation. Museums are agents in the development of culture, whose mission is to foster knowledge by a continuous process of reinterpretation. Each object contributes to that process. To narrow the focus of museums whose collections are diverse and multifaceted would therefore be a disservice to all visitors.

Signed by the Directors of:
The Art Institute of Chicago
Bavarian State Museum, Munich (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek)
State Museums, Berlin
Cleveland Museum of Art
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Louvre Museum, Paris
The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Prado Museum, Madrid
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

European Court to Judge the case of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus?

Two marble statues from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
Photograph: The Trustees of the British Museum

Will the British Museum oppose the human rights of citizens of Turkey that now want some ancient artefacts back? Campaigners are going to European court in attempt to repatriate artefacts created for the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which campaigners want returned to their original site – Bodrum in south-west Turkey.

A Turkish challenge in the European court of human rights will be a test case for the repatriation of art from one nation to another [...]  a dramatic move to reclaim sculptures that once adorned the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus [...]  An Istanbul lawyer, Remzi Kazmaz, told the Observer that a lawsuit will be filed at the European court on 30 January and that 30 lawyers are acting on behalf of the town of Bodrum as well as district and provincial governors, the Turkish ministry of culture and other bodies [...].  Kazmaz said: "We thank the British authorities and the British Museum for accommodating and preserving our historical and cultural heritage for the last years. However, the time has come for these assets to be returned to their place of origin ... Preparations for formal requests are taking place now." [...] Gwendolen Morgan, a human rights lawyer with Bindmans LLP, suggested that "the most likely line of attack" will be a breach by the UK of article 1, 1st protocol of the European convention of human rights, which states: "Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions."

The mausoleum was built in 350BC to mark the burial place of Mausolus, king of Caria. It was a 40-metre-high monument, crowned by a colossal four-horse chariot on a stepped pyramid (of which the head of one of the horses in in the BM). The structure is believed to have collapsed after a medieval earthquake. Some of its sculptures were taken by crusaders to their castle at Bodrum, from where they were recovered in 1846 by the British ambassador at Constantinople and presented to the British Museum. Others were retrieved in the 1850s during site excavations by the museum. In both cases the activities were  carried out with the requisite documents issued by the Ottoman authorities (firmans) which granted permission for the excavation of the site and removal of the material from the site. A petition with 118,000 signatures has been organised and the Strasbourg court will be shown a  documentary film on how Turkey lost its ancient treasure.


Dalya Alberge, 'Turkey turns to human rights law to reclaim British Museum sculptures' Guardian 8 December 2012.

Online Petition to Rescue the Halicarnassus Mausoleum from the British Museum

Matthew Taylor's "Elginism" blog has a text about an online petition to get the british Museum to hand over the bits of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus from near Bodrum that they've got. It seems some groups in Turkey have  been campaigning for their return for some time. You can add your signature to their petition here (neat video).

On the topic, Matthew Taylor also cites a brief article in English on the topic, 'Campaign started for relic', from Hurriyet Daily News - November 23/2012:

A digital signature campaign has been initiated ahead of a lawsuit that will be opened at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in January for the return to Turkey of the Halicarnassus Mausoleum. According to a written statement, several artists have signed the campaign on the website www.askinmabedi.com. The signatures will be collected as part of the lawsuit lawyer Remzi Kazmaz will file, with 30 other lawyers, at the ECHR on Jan. 30. A documentary film about the event will also be included in the lawsuit. Directed by Kazmaz, the 32-minute film “Aşkın Mabedi-Maussolleion” is the story of the ancient treasure being taken out of Turkey. The film, which also has an English version, will be viewed by ECHR officials as well as sold in music stores across Turkey. 

Take a look at the heroic reconstruction of the monument in the video and ask yourself how the fragments removed to a room in a london Museum can ever hope to give a proper representation of that?  To what aim are they kept in London, if not mere trophies, like the bit of the Sphinx's beard?


Source: Elginism, 'Online petition to return the Halicarnassus mausoleum from the British Museum', November 24, 2012.

 

November 24, 2012