LOOT
The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
By Sharon Waxman,
Times Books, 414pp
Reviewed:14 February 2009

The issue of restitution infects some of the toughest political debates facing modern states. Entire peoples claim right of return to historic homelands from which they have been expelled. Post-colonial societies claim restitution from former colonial masters for the exploitation of their resources. Individuals sue governments for restitution over infringement of personal rights.

Sharon Waxman, an American, studied the Middle East at Oxford then worked as a “culture correspondent” and foreign correspondent for the New York Times. This book applies journalistic reporting on places and personalities in a struggle within the world of museums and professional collectors: when should foreign objects held in museums be returned to their place of origin?

The story begins with the Enlightenment idea that people become more civilised by appreciation of the classical past – essentially Greece, Rome and antecedents in the Near East. This inspired the public museum which, from the time of Napoleon, evolved from blatant displays of looted treasure and colonial curios into the sophisticated systems of archaeology, conservation and historical research now epitomised by the Louvre or the British Museum.

Collection by state plunder is as old as the treasures of Solomon and Imperial Triumphs of Persia and Rome. We may see it in contemporary wars over oil, minerals, or lebensraum where the stronger continue to plunder the weaker. The Louvre and the British Museum were founded on overt imperial acquisitions, while the New York Metropolitan Museum continues to receive items of dubious provenance donated by those social-climbing hedge-fund operators not yet in gaol. So to apply high standards of transparency as a basis for restitution is ambitious. For at least a century, the prevailing motto has been “Don’t ask, don’t tell” on the provenance of prized items.

The principle that acquisitions should be authorized from the source arose during the very period that set up some of the most impassioned modern claims for restitution. Napoleon retreated from Egypt after Nelson burned his fleet at Alexandria. Britain returned Egypt to the Ottoman Empire. In gratitude, the British Ambassador to Istanbul, Lord Elgin, was given permission by the Ottoman authorities to “carry out works” at the Parthenon of Athens, then a Turkish garrison with a population of around 10,000. Elgin’s prestige with the Ottoman court allowed him to interpret his authority liberally enough to spend more than ten years physically removing the Parthenon Marbles now held in Britain.

From the mid-nineteenth century, an official system of “partage” has allowed foreign treasure-hunters to share finds with the authorities of the place being excavated. This was subject to corruption and various kinds of skullduggery, but none the less provided legitimate provenance to many significant acquisitions including the sublime bust of Nefertiti now held in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

Legal and illegal acquisitions seem always to have run in parallel, but formal legality has not discouraged new generations of cultural nationalists from demanding return of precious artifacts to their land of origin. Foremost among these is the American-educated Dr Zaki Hawass, President of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, whose crusade has embarrassed some museums into returning objects improperly acquired, while he still pursues major prizes like the bust of Nefertiti.

Waxman gives a fair account of the claims of those restitutionists of Egypt, modern Greece, Turkey and Italy. The happiest case histories undo blatantly unlawful acquisitions involving networks of grave-robbers, smugglers, shady dealers and shameless curators. Sometimes, the restitutionist’s biggest obstacle is not the obduracy of a foreign museum, but the indifference of his national government more concerned with problems of the present. Waxman quotes some Greek dissidents who suspect that the campaign for the Elgin Marbles is more political than practical.

Some of the most spectacular restitution successes have involved American museums such as the Getty Museum in California, where Waxman identifies a cavalier “whatever it takes” ethos as fostering corrupt practice and complete disdain for legitimacy, until exposed in court of law.

Sadly, some of the cultural treasures recovered with heroic effort have since been lost again through corruption, incompetence, or lack of curatorial resources in the place of origin. Such cases strengthen the arguments of the big museums that they hold items not only for themselves but in safe trust for humanity.

The problem is greater when claims involve acquisitions that were legitimate by the norms of their time, but would never be allowed today. How far back can you turn the clock? Italians seek the return from America of looted Roman and Etruscan items, but they have no intention of returning to Egypt the dozens of pharaonic obelisks brought back to Rome by conquering Roman generals. Treasure hoards unearthed in one place may contain ancient loot from another part of a long-gone empire. Is the modern population of a place the sole heir to a distinct civilization thousands of years in the past? And does the targetting of public museums simply tip the balance in favour of private collectors who will hide their smuggled purchases from the world?

There are big gaps in this book. Waxman’s “Ancient World” seems to exclude all of Asia and the Americas, where archeological plunder continues on a spectacular scale to this day. Even in her Middle East area of expertise, there seems to be a cone of silence around the biblical lands between Egypt and Turkey, which have teemed with treasure-hunters for centuries.

In what she covers, she tells a colourful and balanced story. The book is handsomely presented and includes some intriguing illustrations. A better editor would have eliminated many annoying repetitions, and far too many solecisms for a writer of Waxman’s experience.

Richard Thwaites has worked, among other things, as a publisher’s editor