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Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt For Looted Antiquities At The World's Richest Museum (2011)

by Jason Felch(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0151015015 (ISBN13: 9780151015016)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: This book was a great introduction to the history of antiquities collecting in museums. Although it focuses on the history and activities of the Getty Museum, the book provides context for antiquities collections in general; this book will help the reader to understand the ongoing discussion surrounding the return of antiquities to their countries of origin (esp. re: the Elgin Marbles and the like).
review 2: Having lived in LA as a kid, I remember the Getty as one of my favourite places to visit (right up there with Disneyland); the location is beautiful, there are massive amounts of artwork and it's all free. I actually remember seeing some of the looted antiquities described in this book, which made this book all the more engaging for me. It's sad but not su... morerprising to know that most of the artifacts in museums like the Getty have been looted and their archeological context reduced to footnotes in the memories of the fences and looters. This books tells the story of how the Getty (singled out by having the distinction of being the most well-endowed, leading no doubt to "curatorial gluttony") bought statues and artifacts of dubious provenance, knowing they were probably looted. It documents a shift from the ideas that museums need to own the objects that they exhibit, as opposed to long-term loans from the source countries, where the artifacts have been excavated by archeologist and not tomb robbers. This was a fascinating (and fast) read. There is still the problem that looting has not been stopped by the refusal of museums to acquire objects suspected to be looted. There is a currently a staggering amount of tomb-raiding in China; in 2009, my dad and I visited Beijing and the locals pointed us to an antiques market, where, they say, you can find real antiques that have been dug up from the ground. Amongst the glossy, mass-produced jade ornaments and replicas, we did see one pair of statuettes that looked very old, funereal and possibly authentic (on account of there was nothing similar in the entire market), being sold garage-sale style. There are reckoned to be hundreds of thousands of tombs being looted in the last 20 years. I don't think these artifacts are ending up in museums, but instead, in private hands, never to be seen by the rest of the world or studied by academics. less

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