“Insignificant”, “superfluous” and “useless”: legal antiquities for export?
| December 31, 2012 | Posted by Yannis Galanakis under Art/Archaeology, Blog, History |
“…our dispositions [toward antiquities, archaeology and the past] have been shaped by the relevant laws…to such an extent that we are likely to forget that those laws are human institutions–products of history, that is–and treat them instead as if they draw their authority from a timeless universal sense of right or wrong. Our relationship with antiquities…is now mediated by a quasi-naturalised legal frame.”[1]
In a subject that deals with the trafficking of antiquities and archaeological legislation one may well ask: are there legal antiquities for export?
Each country has its own antiquities laws: some do not include the exportation of ancient objects or prohibit it altogether, while others allow the conditional exportation of certain categories. These conditions, as one can easily imagine, vary considerably from case to case. In 19th- and 20th-century Greece, “duplicate”, “insignificant”, “superfluous”, “useless” and “valueless” antiquities could conditionally be legally exported according to the laws of 1834, 1899 and 1932.
“No, I wouldn’t call them ruins”.
A cartoon by Bud Handelsman from the Punch (February 3, 1982, p. 203). © 2012, Punch Ltd.
A cartoon by Bud Handelsman from the Punch (February 3, 1982, p. 203). © 2012, Punch Ltd.
In an earlier post I mentioned the case of the “Aineta aryballos”: an inscribed Corinthian pot that Professor Rhousopoulos sold in 1865, via Charles Merlin, to the British Museum. Rhousopoulos was accused for selling the pot without the written permission of the General Superintendent of antiquities of Greece as the 1834 archaeological law prescribed. In his defense, the Greek Professor of Archaeology used the same means as the General Superintendent: the law itself.
