Is nationalism such a dangerous phenomenon for culture?
Museum Security Neetwork?
“The charge of nationalism (whether outdated or au courant) is frequently levelled at those seeking the repatriation of cultural treasures to those nations and communities from which they were extracted. But nations have always used their own material culture as a means of constructing and expressing their national identity. There is nothing implicitly damaging or divisive in that. However it becomes so when the objects being used are not indigenous to that country but instead material extracted from other nations during periods of imperial conquest or colonial adventure.” Tom Flynn (1)
Queen-mother Idia, Benin/Nigeria, now in the British Museum. Could the demand for her return by the African States participating in FESTAC be nationalistic whilst the refusal by the United Kingdom is not? (2)
In recent months, some writers such as James Cuno have been throwing about the accusation of nationalism as if it were such a bad phenomenon for culture or, indeed, as if it were incompatible with culture or somehow bad for cultural development: “Nationalist retentionist cultural property laws segregate the world’s cultural property within the borders of modern nation-states. Most often, as I have discussed them in this book such laws are focussed on antiquities; that is, on works of art made long before there were nations. National and international laws, regulations, and agreements typically define antiquities as works of art made at least 150 years ago. They claim antiquities found (or thought to have been found) within their national borders as a nation’s patrimony, as important to that nation’s identity and esteem, and not to our understanding of the world. Quite explicitly, they claim them as a nation’s property, as bearing the imprint of a national identity.” (3)
- Alerts Issued Re Egyptian Antiquities
UNESCO UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has called for increased vigilance from national and international authorities, art dealers and collectors following reports of the theft of several important relics from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and other...
- Book Review: Who Owns Antiquity?
Expedition, Volume 51 (Review by Praveena Gullapalli) Thanks to Richard Vijay for sending this link. The book review dates back to summer 2009 but I managed to miss it! In the light of all the recent conversations re repatriation the book is still very...
- Antiquities, The World Is Your Homeland
New York Times (Edward Rothstein) James Cuno's new book has generated a lot of interest in the media and on individual blogs. He has published this book at a good time, when issues of repatriation and the ownership of heritage are very much in the...
- Who Owns History?
Time Magazine (Richard Lacayo) An article that looks at the broad potential impact of Italy's determined pursuit of items that it believes were removed illegally from the country. In this climate, the question of ownership of the past has taken on...
- Repatriation Story
This is an excellent article on Africa trying to reclaim its cultural heritage from western museums with the author talking about the recent gathering of representatives in Cairo. The Cairo conference was led by the Egyptian Vice Minister of culture Dr....