Full Description
In this account, Colin Renfrew illustrates how the most precious product of archaeology is the information that controlled and well-published excavations can give us about our shared human past. Clandestine and unpublished digging of archaeological sites for gain - ie looting - destroys the context and all hope of providing such information. It is the source of most of the antiquities that appear on the art market today - unprovenanced antiquities, the product of illicit traffic financed, knowingly or not by the collectors and museums that buy them on a no-questions-asked basis. This trade has turned London as well as other international centres into a 'thieves kitchen' where greed triumphs over serious appreciation of the past. Unless a solution is found to this ethical crisis in archaeology, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. This book attempts to lay bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that underlies that crisis.
Contents
List of illustrations Introduction 1. The destruction of the past 2. Unprovenanced antiquities: the role of the private collector and dealer3. Causes for concern: illegitimate acquisition and reluctant restitution 4. A universal problem: Asia, Africa, America 5. Ineffective safeguards and evolving moralities 6. Antiquities in England: the local view 7. Envoi: the past has an uncertain future Appendices: Conventions, Resolutions, Documentsi. The UNESCO Convention (1970)ii. The Unidroit Convention (1995) iii. The Philadelphia Declaration (1970) iv. International Council of Museums, Code of Professional Ethics v. Policy Statement by the Trustees of the British Museum (1998) vi. Resolution of the Council of the British Academy (1998) vii. Writ of Summons in the Sevso Case, London (1991) viii. The Treasure Act for England and Wales (1996) ix. The European Council on the export of cultural goods (1992) x. The Cambridge Resolution (1999)Bibliography Index
