Expert: New Indiana Jones Movie Raises Issues of Looted Art
The new Indiana Jones movie released today might make it seem like finding ancient artifacts is a swashbuckling adventure, but that kind of art collecting is a thing of the past, says the director of Duke's art museum.
Museums like the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University collect works of art from many different cultures, including antiquities, to share with a broad public. But looters have ruined it for Indiana Jones-style archeologists, who for decades had worked successfully with foreign governments to distribute some antiquities found through archeological digs to Western museums, says Kimerly Rorschach, director of the Nasher Museum of Art.
"Now the rules have changed. Generally speaking, all exporting is illegal, in an effort to stem the tide of looting. University art museums face the dilemma of wanting to collect antiquities for legitimate educational purposes but not wanting to contribute to illegal looting and smuggling," Rorschach says.
Rorschach has written about these issues, and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, which articulates best-practice standards for collecting that museums must follow.
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Museums like the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University collect works of art from many different cultures, including antiquities, to share with a broad public. But looters have ruined it for Indiana Jones-style archeologists, who for decades had worked successfully with foreign governments to distribute some antiquities found through archeological digs to Western museums, says Kimerly Rorschach, director of the Nasher Museum of Art.
"Now the rules have changed. Generally speaking, all exporting is illegal, in an effort to stem the tide of looting. University art museums face the dilemma of wanting to collect antiquities for legitimate educational purposes but not wanting to contribute to illegal looting and smuggling," Rorschach says.
Rorschach has written about these issues, and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, which articulates best-practice standards for collecting that museums must follow.