Art Pottery, Politics and Food
Friday, April 16, 2004
 
From Don MacNarummy’s Who Gives a Crap File

This morning’s Washington Post reports that the plundering of global archaeological sites and the theft of cultural objects was the subject of a press conference yesterday in Washington, DC by representatives of the International Council of Museums.
The ICM has published lists called Red Lists of endangered African, Latin American and Iraqi cultural objects and these lists are intended to help Customs officials determine which cultural objects are legally outside their native milieu in a global environment of increasing cultural theft.
The American Association of Museums, the State Department and several respected scholars, endorsed the list, at its first US presentation yesterday.
While the morning's Post focused almost exclusively on Latin American objects, intrepid readers might spot the glaring absence of a highly newsworthy and recently culturally raped country from the following excerpt:

An illustrated guide of examples of frequently targeted objects from Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and other countries.

Since last year’s war, the Post has offered limited and grudging coverage of ongoing efforts to recovers objects stolen from that still embattled land and, this morning, makes no effort to expand the coverage beyond the horrific Latin American thefts.
No mention of recovered objects, arrests or ongoing investigations involving the highly newsworthy mystery nation, no mention of the high-rolling and well-connected American Council for Cultural Policy and no mention of the Treasures of Nimrud either gold or ivory by a newspaper that should know better.

Related posts can be found on June 14, June 28 and the 28th and 29th of October 2003.

Michel van Rijn offers an interesting peek into the cultural object trade.

Image: icom.museum
- posted by Sean @ 1:46 AM
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