Episode 5: Return to Sender

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Looted

Zoë Kontes

6 episodes

8 months ago

On Looted: The Podcast, we uncover the hidden stories of ancient artifacts and their journeys in the illicit antiquities trade. I’m Zoë Kontes, and I’m an archaeologist. When we archaeologists dig, we carefully record what we find so we can make the best sense of the evidence. But go to any museum, auction house, or dealer with an antiquities collection and you’ll be sure to find objects that have been removed from the ground without this kind of proper excavation. Looting destroys the context of artifacts, and while they may look beautiful in a display case, we lose any information about their significance or function in the culture that made them. This is a loss of our common human history, and it affects us all. Check out http://www.lootedpodcast.org for all episodes and more information!

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History

Episode 5: Return to Sender

Looted

30 minutes 21 seconds

4 years ago

Episode 5: Return to Sender

On the program today we tackle the big question of repatriation and the decades-long debates involving some famous antiquities returned to Italy from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the Euphronios Krater (pictured) and the Morgantina Silver.

More to see, read, and hear:

On the krater:

Brodie, Neil. “Euphronios (Sarpedon) Krater.” Trafficking Culture, September 6, 2012. https://traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/euphronios-sarpedon-krater/

Edgers, Geoff and Sofia Celeste. “Case in Italy suggests MFA received stolen art, Museum says it received no proof.” The Boston Globe, November 4, 2005. http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/04/case_in_italy_suggests_mfa_received_stolen_art/.

Hoving, Thomas. Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Kennedy, Randy and Hugh Eakin. “Met Chief, Unbowed, Defends Museum’s Role.” New York Times, February 28, 2006. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/arts/28mont.html.

Silver, Vernon. The Lost Chalice. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

Spivey, Nigel. The Sarpedon Krater: The Life and Afterlife of a Greek Vase. London: Head of Zeus, 2018. https://headofzeus.com/books/9781786691606.

Watson, Peter and Cecilia Todeschini. The Medici Conspiracy. New York: Public Affairs, 2007.

On the silver:

Felch, Jason and Ralph Frammolino. Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt, 2011.

The Met. “Statement by the Metropolitan Museum of Art on its Agreement with Italian Ministry of Culture.” Press, February 21, 2006. https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2006/statement-by-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-on-its-agreement-with-italian-ministry-of-culture.

Povoledo, Elisabetta. “A Trove of Ancient Silver Said to Be Stolen Returns to Its Home in Sicily.” The New York Times, December 5, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/arts/design/06silver.html.

Singleton, Maura. “Plunder: The Theft of the Morgantina Silver.” VIRGINIA Magazine, Spring 2006. http://uvamagazine .org/articles/plunder.

Steele, Chauncey D. “The Morgantina Treasure: Italy’s Quest for Repatriation of Looted Artifacts.” Suffolk Transnational Law Review 23 (July 2000):1-27.

Stone, Shelley C. “Appendix 4: The Morgantina Silver Treasure.” In Morgantina Studies, Volume VI: The Hellenistic and Roman Fine Pottery, edited by Shelley C. Stone, 458-461. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Thomas, Suzie. “Morgantina Silver.” Trafficking Culture, November 26, 2012. http://traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/morgantina-silver/.

On repatriation:

La Follette, Laetitia. “Looted Antiquities, Art Museums and Restitution in the United States since 1970.” Journal of Contemporary History 52.3 (2017): 669–687. (Published online July 2016 by Sage Journals online at DOI: 10.1177/0022009416641198 Back to Episodes