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Plundered Art (ARTH 218)
In recent years, many leading museums have become embroiled in controversies centering on whether they have developed their antiquities collections unethically, if not illegally. Lawsuits and media reports have accused them essentially of plundering art, forcing the return of important objects in some cases. This course focuses on the ethics of art collecting and offers historic examples of plundering from Nebuchadnezzar to the Nazis.
The theft of art is hardly a modern phenomenon. Verres, a greedy Roman governor of Sicily, illegally amassed astonishing stolen civic treasures. The Roman Emperor Nero robbed Pergamon of its most famous sculpture of the Hellenistic world, the Laocoön Group, and installed it in his notorious Golden House. The Venetian Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the Conquistadores’ sack of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century, and French and British expeditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia all provide examples of a trend that lives on today. Perhaps the most notable example in recent history can be seen in the pillaging of the Iraqi Museum of Art in Baghdad as well as other sacred Iraqi sites. Our cultural odyssey following plundered art will be global in nature and will cover millennia of purloined treasures. And we will further probe into a salient question vexing art collectors today—when can the dislocation of art be justified (for example, when the host country cannot preserve a priceless object) and when does it cross an important line?
Patrick Hunt
Director, Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project, 1994–2008
Patrick Hunt received a PhD from the Institute of
Archaeology, University College London, University of
London. His articles have appeared widely, in publications
including the Journal of Roman Archaeology XI,
World Archaeology, Studia Phoenicia, and Bulletin of the
Institute of Classical Studies. He is the author of several
books including Caravaggio (2004), House of the Muse
(2005), Alpine Archaeology (2007), Ten Discoveries That
Rewrote History (2007), and Renaissance Visions: Myth
and Art (2008).
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Course Details
Wednesdays
7:00 - 8:50 pm
5 weeks
Jun 25 - Jul 23
1 unit $200
Drop by: Jul 8
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