Who Owns Antiquity?
Book description
Whether antiquities should be returned to the countries where they were found is one of the most urgent and controversial issues in the art world today, and it has pitted museums, private collectors, and dealers against source countries, archaeologists, and academics. Maintaining that the acquisition of undocumented antiquities by museums…
Why read it?
1 author picked Who Owns Antiquity? as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Until read this book, I took it as a given that countries had a right to request the return of antiquities that ended up in (mostly) Western museums, narratives that are now making headlines in our anti-colonial present.
Cuno explains how complex this issue is ethically, legally and philosophically. Many of the peoples whose heritage these objects represent have disappeared or no longer occupy the countries in question.
Also for the sake of the objects themselves should they be studied and maintained and made available to a wide public in a museum rather than be returned to a corrupt government?
Want books like Who Owns Antiquity??
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Who Owns Antiquity?.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,176
readers submitted
so far, will you?
