No Safe Harbor

More Evidence 1970 No Safe Harbor

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-evidence-1970-no-safe-harbor.html

by Peter Tompa

Turkey's demand that the Met return artifacts from a collection formed as far back as the 1960's again demonstrates that 1970 is no safe harbor for museums as the AIA claimed to induce the AAMD to accept a 1970 provenance rule for new acquistions. See http://chasingaphrodite.com/2012/03/20/exclusive-turkey-seeks-the-return-of-18-objects-from-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art/

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COMMENTARY

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The "1970 provenance rule" is of course not likely to satisfy Turkey or any other "source nation" seeing advantages in securing the return of artifacts from foreign collections, whether or not any legal basis for repatriation exists (in this case it does not).

The appetite of these nations for amassing artifacts seems to be endless.

On the other hand, their appetite for properly caring for artifacts seems never to have gotten started.

It's all domestic politics of course , and it's abysmally unclear why law-abiding US citizens should be inconvenienced (or even dispossessed of their rightful property) so that unscrupulous foreign politicians can find political cover.

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