Sharon Waxman

Reads like a thriller, in my view, and provides deep context on the anything but black and white issues of who owns antiquities. Waxman tells a story like nobody's business, and this ability raises more questions than answers about a controversy we'll likely never move past.

[a:Sharon Waxman|61214|Sharon Waxman|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] does an excellent job in Loot tackling the world of cultural antiquities in museum collections. Written in a journalistic style, Loot offers a view from the many sides of a complicated issue. As a museum professional, it was heartbreaking at times to read of what were presented as illicit and at times illegal acquisitions by curators and institutions (Waxman focuses mostly on the Louvre, the Met show more and the Getty). More challenging is the question of materials taken under colonial rule. Waxman's portrayal of pillaging antiquities dealers who manipulated weak colonial governments into relinquishing their vast cultural patrimony makes the reader want to side with those advocating restitution. However, the story doesn't end there. Waxman also tells us about the continued difficulties that many of these countries have in preventing looting and illegal export of materials found in archeological sites and their own museums. For me, Loot was also fascinating because many of the recent and important cases for restitution have largely rested on the availability of information. Museums who acquired materials have often been complicit with antiquities dealers and auction houses in suppressing information about the provenance of acquisitions. Waxman also notes that museums also conveniently leave out this information when discussing pieces acquired through other distasteful means, such as colonial conquest. Where ever you end up standing on the question of repatriation, Loot will change the way you think about the objects you see on your next museum visit. show less

An eye-opening series of accounts of the secret history of your favorite museum installations. In addition to tracing the path that antiquities take from their countries of origin to the national institutions that house them, Waxman continually raises and reraises the ethical question of the organizations and governments that acquire these antiquities in order to preserve them in perpetuity, and the practical desire of returning them to their home regions, where political and social show more situations may be less than ideal.Basically, the book boils down to this: who does ancient art belong to, the world, or the specific country of origin? Would it deprive the world of something precious to take the Elgin Marbles out of the British Museum, where millions of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to see them, and return them to Greece, where there are serious doubts about the country's ability to continue to preserve them? And what right does one country have over another to say such a thing? show less

If you asked me a few months ago if the treasures of the ancient world should be given back to their respective countries from the museums of the west I would have with my whole heart said yes. However as this book points out the issue is not as simple as that. The true ownership of some of the treasures has become murky through time. Do they just belong to their country of origin or to the whole of humanity? If you are of the camp that they belong to everyone then they are certainly safest show more in the museums of the west. I was shocked to learn that the average Egyptian has little regard for the artifacts of the ancient world. The picture of people lounging on ancient statues in the courtyard of the Cairo museum was hard for me to believe. Of course I grew up visiting museums where they don't even allow you to take a picture of their fairly modern items, let alone touch anything. Zahi Hawass has been spearheading Egypts attempts to get it's treasures back. It seems like he was making headway too, I read online that the Met agreed to give back 19 items from it's collection in exchange for the King Tut exhibit now in Time Square. Of course as we all know Egypt has been having some problems of late. As of March 5, Hawass has quit his post because of the wide spread looting of the Cairo museum as well as other dig sites throughout Egypt. What if the museums of the world had given back the Rosetta Stone and the bust of Nefertiti. Would they even be safe in Egypt right now? This book will make you think and rethink your position. I found this book fascinating. As an avid museum goer it put collections in museums in whole new light for me. show less