Another Voice in the Antiquities Debate

The belated answer to last week's Where in the World is Lee Going? is, of course, my alma mater, Cornell University, whose dairy bar has just invented a new ice cream flavor, "Banana Berry Skorton," named for its newly inaugurated cardiologist-president (first name, David). Directly after this very untraditional and unstuffy investiture, to-die-for samples of the new dessert were distributed to all. But Dr. Skorton, your eponymous frozen concoction is killing my heart-healthy diet!

What's all this got to do with antiquities, you rightly ask.

Just this: The next day I wandered over to the Johnson Museum of Art, picked up its latest newsletter, and read the director's forward. Instead of discussing current museum news and offerings, Frank Robinson offered his strong views on the antiquities wars. He noted that the theft of the Lydian Hoard, soon after those objects were repatriated to Turkey by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, provided "a powerful argument against repatriation of ancient objects to their countries of origin." Nevertheless, he asserted his continued belief that "repatriation is the only moral, ethical and legal thing to do":

The most precious "asset" of any museum, and of the museum profession as a whole, is our integrity---the perception, and reality, that we stand for certain principles....If we traffic in things that we know are stolen or smuggled, where their history has been deliberately suppressed, we risk compromising our mission---the very point of why we collect in the first place---and we risk being perceived as no better than the thieves and smugglers themselves. Repatriation is the thorniest and most complex issue facing museums today, and probably no one has the moral high ground. That is all the more reason for museums, and those who support us and believe we should be models of behavior, to try, once again, to do the right thing.

The Met's director, Philippe de Montebello will again express his more nuanced views on this subject, in two sold-out public lectures at the Met, Nov. 16 and Dec. 7.