Scholar accuses museums of looting

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Getty Museum may be repositories of cultural heritage -- or "rogue museums" that finance the looting and destruction of antiquities around the world.

Cambridge Archaeology Professor Colin Renfrew accused museums such as these and private collectors of "indirectly funding the looting of archaeological sites" in a lecture last night at the University Museum.

"The destruction of the world's archaeological heritage is continuing rapidly today," Renfrew told the crowd of about 200, pointing to the looting of sites in Iraq that has followed the U.S.-led invasion.

Such looting is "fueled by collectors who purchase unprovenanced antiquities" -- objects with undocumented origins, Renfrew said.

Collectors and museums that hesitate to ask questions about an object's origin allow looters a market for their spoils, he argued.

Even world-renowned institutions help to sponsor looting in this manner, Renfrew said.

For example, former Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas Hoving admitted in his memoir that the famous Euphronios vase in the Met's collection may have been looted from Etruria when it was acquired by the museum in 1972, Renfrew said.

Some collectors rationalize these purchases by saying that they are "giving the object a good home," Renfrew said.

But he argued that the biggest loss from looting is the historical knowledge that archaeologists lose when these objects are removed from their original context.

"What matters from an excavation is the information," Renfrew said.

He discussed the example of terra cotta figurines from the Djenn‚ culture in Mali that have been recently looted from archaeological sites. Though many of these figurines reappeared in museums or private collections, the objects can no longer be seen in situ. Because of this, Renfrew said it is difficult for archaeologists to learn from them.

"The loss to our knowledge and the damage is appalling," Renfrew said. "We have no architectural context for this culture. What we have instead is a hole in the ground."

The only way to combat this is for museums and collectors to stop buying looted objects, Renfrew said.

Museums should "publish a code of ethics in regards to acquisitions... and follow it," he said.

Renfrew commended the University Museum, which he said has already "taken a public stand" on the issue.

In 1970, the curators of the University Museum decided to no longer purchase objects without accompanying information about their previous owners, places of origin and legality of export.

This should become a universal standard, Renfrew said.

"The lecture was a treat," first-year archaeology graduate student Carin Bloom said. "He has many ideas other archaeologists should pay attention to."

Before the lecture, Museum Director Jeremy Sabloff presented Renfrew with the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal, an award established in 1889 to honor outstanding achievement in archaeology.

"He has played a leading role in the world of archaeology for three decades... and is highly deserving of this honor," Sabloff said of Renfrew.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.