"thought to have adorned the floor of a bedroom in a Pompeii home" ... Would love to see a single comparandum for this.

I'm skeptical.

"Private English Collection, Thence By Descent": maybe the most non-informative provenance ever! Are they trolling us?

I keep thinking about why it failed so hard compared to the excellent Past Lives.

Huh! Would love a pdf.

@rogueclassicist.bsky.social @artcrimeprof.bsky.social @museumofloot.bsky.social @davidwjgill.bsky.social

Waiting for someone to say something about their enormous collection of Benin Bronzes (numbering something like 150, I believe?), whose rightful ownership was apparently not reconsidered at this opportune moment…?

I wrote something arguing something similar: cardozoaelj.com/from-excepti...

... For a better model of how museums can discuss past wrongdoing, shifting ethics, and new understandings of their responsibilities to diverse stakeholders in their gallery spaces, see the recent example at the Asian Art Museum. exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/...

... that claims to address the "legal and ethical aspects" of its collecting history, it should be ready to acknowledge its own mistakes honestly. Otherwise, it's just spin masquerading as transparency ... (11/12)

... cultural property don't count and will be ignored unless U.S. law enforcement gets involved. It is also remarkable that the museum would characterize its decision to sue that law enforcement agency as "many months of productive discussion." If a museum is going to have a wall panel ... (10/12)

... had "received no legal challenges to its ownership until 2023." But in fact, Turkiye has been asking for the statue's return since 2012. The implication of the museum's statement is that requests from sovereign nations for the return of their stolen ... (9/12) www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

... for acquisition," that only reveals how out of step the CMA's standards were compared to all the other museums that took Inan's work seriously and said no to documented plunder. The "legal and ethical aspects" panel also states that the museum ... (8/12) hyperallergic.com/862516/cleve...

... why none of those other museums had been willing to risk buying it. Yes, the seller might have "claimed to be the rightful owner," but everyone, including Cleveland, knew the truth, thanks to Inan's research. If the "reported modern history of the sculpture met the CMA's standards ... (7/12)

... starting in 1979, that tied the thefts at Bubon to the statues that were circulating on the American market, including this Philosopher statue. Yes, for the 19 years that the statue was on the market, it had been "publicly exhibited in several other institutions," but there's a reason ... (6/12)

... the CMA recognizes Inan's work, noting that it "remains fundamental to understanding Bubon and its statues" and even including a photo of her in the panel on the ancient city. But her research wasn't just about "how the statues were arranged atop the bases." It was her publications, ... (5/12)

... quite unusual for how well-documented its illegal origins were. Unlike most looters, the ones at Bubon in 1967 had failed to keep their activities a secret, attracting the immediate attention of both Turkish police and Turkish archaeologists such as Jale Inan. It is lovely that ... (4/12)

... in the United States, the seller claimed to be its rightful owner, and the reported modern history of the sculpture met the CMA standards for acquisition." This implies that there was nothing remarkable or questionable about this acquisition at the time. In fact, this statue was ... (3/12)