hot pot

The two points to take away from the LA Times article on new evidence regarding the Euphronios krater (link via MAN):

Italian officials acknowledge that the statute of limitations has expired on possible civil and criminal claims that could have been used in the 1970s to repatriate the krater. They say the new case they are mounting is largely a moral one.

But they also note that substantial evidence implicating other antiquities at the Met has emerged in their investigation, and they suggest that criminal cases targeting the Met and other American museums may be in the works.

If a moral case is all they have, don't feel like you have to rush to New York for a last look - it isn't going anywhere.  On the other hand, American museums who maintained active antiquities aquisition programs after the 1970s have, at the very least, some very bad headaches in their future, even if they did not knowingly do anything wrong.  A large number of museums stopped seriously acquiring ancient art, or at least making major purchases of it, in part because it became too hard; those who didn't may regret it.

The thing that gets me most is that for many of the objects that one imagines will be coming under scrutiny, this will be the most attention they've had in years.  The Euphronios krater is a famous work, but there are countless other vases and antiquities in empty museum galleries across the country.  The Greeks and Romans don't pull 'em in like they used to, sad to say.

Comments

[Kriston]

I don't really know how closely the student/activist scene is likely to follow these issues, but doesn't this seem like ripe ground for protest? Were the Met to reject Italy's moral suit on grounds of a statute of limitations, I think I might expect some protest. Maybe I'm overestimating the grassroots?

[JL]

doesn't this seem like ripe ground for protest?

I suppose it's possible, especially if someone with a network of some kind were to take an interest in pushing it. But I tend to doubt it. Those inclined to protest stuff have a pretty long list already, for one thing. And while it may be unjust, we are the beneficiaries of the injustice, a fact that often cuts into the ranks of those willing to oppose the status quo. I'm not sure how high on the radar this sort of museum issue is for the activist crowd, or whether they'd care. I suspect a Greek vase at the Met would rank somewhere below freeing Mumia and legalizing hemp. And museums, and those who support them, really dig in their heels (as the Met has already done) when it comes to these things. Consider the Elgin Marbles; yes, at times people have objected on moral grounds, but there's not a chance they'll leave the British Museum.

I would think that such steps as threatening not to allow any loans or sales to the Met might have more leverage than moral protest. But I'm not sure what's feasible, or even legally possible, or if it would have the desired impact. I can imagine that Italy could possibly make doing things like the Fra Angelico exhibition difficult for the Met in the future. But I may be wrong.

[Kriston]

I was thinking specifically about the Elgin Marbles, which from time to time reinvigorate the public interest sufficiently for a few marchers. No, I wouldn't expect anything to come of it, on the outside chance someone organizes.

[JL]

which from time to time reinvigorate the public interest sufficiently for a few marchers.

Keep in mind that Britain has a much more active left than we do, and that the Elgin Marbles are a far more important monument than the Euphronios krater (though not that the latter is chicken feed.)

You know who once wrote a book about the Marbles? Christopher Hitchens.