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.

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

This is a though-provoking look at large encyclopedic museums, their practices in the past and present in dealing with antiquities from across the globe. As the author states, the book raises more questions than answers about cultural patrimony, looting, restitution, who should keep antiquities, and whether the 1970 UNESCO laws really discourage looting or whether they actually foster black market selling of antiquities to individuals which will never be seen by anyone else. I read this book show more for a book club, and probably would not have picked it up otherwise. However, it was a surprisingly easy read, and very interesting. show less

[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