Loot
by cecile
Love museums and antiquities? Ever wonder how the British Museum ended up with the best stuff from every country colonized in the name of the Queen? The Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Vatican and the J. Paul Getty Museum were in on the game too.
Loot by Sharon Waxman is a fascinating, well-written account of how Egypt, Greece, Italy, Turkey and others have been plundered of their masterworks by treasure hunters, museums and nobility bent on creating personal collections. She aptly describes the history of this high-stakes conflict that includes lawsuits, grave robbers, international thievery and personal and professional ruin.
Many pieces have been returned over the years but not without a fight. The major museums of the world insist that world cultural heritage will be damaged if the art is returned to their country of origin because fewer people will go to smaller museums in the host countries.
Greece has been after the U.K. for a long time to return the Elgin Marbles, a collection including sculptures from the Parthenon and objects from other buildings on the Acropolis: the Erechtheion, the Propylaia, and the Temple of Athena Nike.
The New Acropolis Museum is set to open in June and a huge gallery has been built to house the Elgin Marbles. But the U.K. hasn’t said anything about returning them yet. Stay tuned...
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