The purchase of illicit antiquities by North American museums has received a lot of media attention recently, and deservingly so. An internal report by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles concluded that 350 ancient artefacts were purchased from dealers currently suspected of looting. This includes a third of the ‘masterpieces’ that form the core of […]
Category archives: Ethics
Archaeologists at Auctions?
If I had $15.000, would I bid for an antique such as this Roman marble torso of a god or hero, to be auctioned off on 9 December in New York? It’s a question that I sometimes ask myself when I receive emails from Christie’s announcing antiquities auctions. The provenance of this particular torso can […]
A (Possibly) Fake Portrait of Nero
I have previously mentioned Eric Varner’s recent book Mutilation and Transformation. It offers a full catalogue of imperial portraits subjected to damnatio memoriae. This is helpful, but there are a few things that bother me about the book. One of them is that Varner includes a portrait of Nero, that is very likely to be […]