Thousands of objects belonging to American and European collections have been stolen from their countries of origin. Should we send them back? Here’s everything you need to know:
How big is the stolen art market?
The illicit trade in cultural goods – from ancient friezes to coins and modern art – is estimated at $10 billion a year, according to UNESCO. In the United States alone, the FBI’s Art Crime Team has recovered some 20,000 pieces collectively valued at more than $900 million over the past 20 years. Solving a case can be as simple as returning a burglarized painting to its owner. But often this means
take into account much more serious wrongs. Thousands of works looted in the middle
war, genocide or colonial occupation can be found in some of the world’s most distinguished museums and private collections. In recent years, activists and governments have launched campaigns to secure the return of artworks to their countries of origin, with considerable success. More than 50 international restitutions took place this year. In recent weeks, American investigators have seized ancient Roman sculptures from American museums believed to have been looted from Turkey in the 1960s, as well as paintings by expressionist Egon Schiele stolen by the Nazis from a Holocaust victim. . Restitution of such works is “more than a legal question of who has clear title,” said Elizabeth Campbell, an expert on art collecting ethics. “It’s a moral question.”
Who are the main players in this trade?
Over the centuries, they have included thieves, smugglers, unscrupulous art dealers – and nations extorting tribute from conquered peoples. Europe’s contact with the New World gave rise to a dynamic trade in pre-Columbian objects, the effects of which are still felt today. In March, the Mexican government repatriated a “land monster,” a one-ton stone sculpture from the ancient Olmec civilization, after U.S. authorities seized it from a private collector in Colorado. More recently, waves of looting took place during the Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia, the Iraq War and the Arab Spring, with items funneled to foreign buyers. Since early 2022, Russian troops – under the leadership of Russian art experts – have emptied museums in occupied Ukraine; 10,000 of the 14,000 works in the Kherson Art Museum have been seized. “They were looking for historical objects,” said Ihor Poshyvailo, a Ukrainian curator.
Subscribe to free weekly newsletters
From our morning news briefing to our weekly Good News newsletter, get the best of the week delivered straight to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to our weekly Good News newsletter, get the best of the week delivered straight to your inbox.
Did museum officials help with the looting?
Until the end of the 20th century, many Western conservatives took an Indiana Jones approach to cultural treasures: grab them and run. Thomas Hoving, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who later became its director, once extracted a Romanesque relief from an Italian church with the help of a dealer who hid stolen items in his station wagon. “My collecting style was pure hacking,” Hoving wrote in his memoir. Gary Vikan, former director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, said the world of curators in the 1980s was “the Wild West.” You wanted to be the one to get this icon, this sculpture, this bronze.
What changed?
Laws – and ultimately attitudes. A 1954 Hague Convention banned looting
or the destruction of cultural objects in times of war. A historic 1970 UNESCO convention extended this ban and today most museums can no longer take possession of an object without documentary proof that it was legally exported after 1970. Purchasing standards have were further strengthened in the 2000s, amid outrage over the widespread looting of ancient sites following the American invasion of Iraq. The craft chain Hobby Lobby — whose evangelical owners are interested in the biblical Middle East — purchased some 5,500 clay tablets, talismans and other allegedly stolen items for $1.6 million. These items were eventually repatriated to Iraq under a 2017 deal with the U.S. government. But some museum officials say it’s wrong to assume that objects in long-established collections are ill-gotten and that after so many years they should be returned.
Why are they opposed to restitution?
In many cases, this is because they believe their institutions are the rightful owners. In the early 19th century, the British aristocrat Lord Elgin returned from Greece with statues and friezes that once adorned the Parthenon in Athens; the withdrawal, he said, was approved by local Ottoman officials. The Elgin Marbles are now a star attraction at the British Museum in London, but Greece considers them part of its cultural heritage and has long called for their return. Earlier this year, Michelle Donelan, then Britain’s culture minister, said such a repatriation would open “a veritable Pandora’s box”, leading other countries to make demands for the museum’s return. Many of these countries, some conservatives argue, are not safe for their cultural treasures.
What is the problem?
War, poverty, corruption and poor infrastructure in developing countries can make artifacts vulnerable to damage, theft and decay. Some experts consider these arguments strong for leaving looted works where they are: in well-secured museums visited by millions of people around the world. “Where else on our planet can we bring together under one roof the fruits of 2 million years of human effort? said George Osborne, Chief Trustee of the British Museum and former Chancellor of the Exchequer. But others, particularly non-Westerners, detect echoes of condescending colonial attitudes in these humanitarian appeals. “It is painful that others always want to teach us how to preserve our heritage,” said Beninese art historian Didier Houénoudé, “that these others have themselves painfully destroyed.”
The fate of the Benin Bronzes
In 1897, British troops armed with artillery and machine guns attacked Benin City, in what is now Nigeria, to quell a rebellion; thousands of residents were killed. The British seized some 3,000 brass sculptures of astonishing complexity from the royal enclosure. The Benin Bronzes, as they were called, eventually landed in collections across Europe and the United States. In 2007, Western museum directors met with Nigerian officials to discuss repatriation; Since then, Germany has returned 1,100, France 26 and the Smithsonian 29. But in Nigeria, a dispute erupted over who should take them: the government, whose flagship art museum is in disrepair? An internationally funded company with a museum project designed by star architect David Adjaye? Or the oba, the traditional ruler whose ancestors commissioned the sculptures? Last spring, outgoing Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari decreed that the oba should have them. The powerless and cash-strapped monarch has not publicly displayed the artifacts and refuses international oversight. Some fear he will sell them to foreign buyers. “In the name of righting old wrongs,” David Frum wrote in The Atlantic, “modern policymakers risk committing new and grave ones.” »
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you’re interested in learning more, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
