Egypt

New Standards On Collecting Of Archaeological Material, Ancient Art

Huliq News

The American Association of Museums (AAM) today announced the establishment of standards regarding museum acquisition of archaeological material and ancient art that emphasize proper provenance of such objects and complete transparency on the part of the acquiring institutions.

The product of two years of concerted research and vetting from the museum field, Standards Regarding Archaeological Material and Ancient Art provides clear ethical guidance on collecting such material so as to discourage illicit excavation of archaeological sites or monuments. Crafted by the specially created AAM Task Force on Cultural Property the standards were approved by the AAM Board of Directors at its July meeting in Minneapolis. The complete document can be found at (insert link).

“The museum community is deeply concerned about international looting of cultural materials and the resulting destruction of sites and information,” said Ford W. Bell, AAM president. “These standards will help U.S. museums shape their policies and practices to effectively promote the preservation of our common cultural patrimony.”

The new Standards require museums to have a publicly available collections policy setting out the institution's standards for provenance — that is, history of ownership — concerning new acquisitions of archaeological material and ancient art.

See the above page for the full story.

- Museum Of Islamic Art Centenary
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) Now that refurbishment is complete, would-be visitors to the museum need wait no longer to roam the spacious galleries showcasing its wooden, metal, ceramic, glass, rock crystal and textile objects from across the Islamic...

- 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...

- Museums Set Stricter Guidelines For Acquiring Antiquities
New York Times (Randy Kennedy) After a year and half of deliberations, the directors of the country’s largest art museums will announce new guidelines on Wednesday for how their institutions should collect antiquities, a volatile issue that has led...

- Improving Transparency Of Acquisitions In The Us
http://tinyurl.com/zca5r (Yahoo! News) "To improve the transparency of acquisitions, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) released new guidelines last month on loans of antiquities and ancient art. The guidelines, among other things, say loans...

- Defending Unprovenanced Artefacts
http://tinyurl.com/fcaet (New York Times) An article about Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "In a wide-ranging interview last week, just a day after he returned from signing a final agreement in Rome, Mr. de Montebello...

Egypt