Responding to msg by [log in to unmask] (Amy
Douglass) on
 
>Illegal looting not only
>removes cultural patrimony but it is  extremely
>destructive to what is left behind.
 
Amy,
 
Thank you for your articulate and thoughtful reply to my
perhaps hasty response to the post about the Temple at
Pergamon.  I was hoping that my words would elicit a good
argument from the other side.  Your note was the first I read,
and
deserves praise for the earnestness and forthrightness of your
expression.  I say this without relinquishing the broad motive
behind my original message, namely that many such monuments
belong to the civilized world and are the responsibility of
civilization as a whole to study and protect. You might say
that  I think
that intellectual responsibilities are more important than
national boundaries.
 
There is a distinction between works that are part of live
traditions and central to the practice and meaning of such
traditions, and works that have just remained where they were
built, though the culture and population may have changed many
times around them.  Native American works may be considered
among the
former (though not all such works); the Temple of Pergamon
among the latter.
 
I wish I knew some more about the details of how the Temple
ended up in Berlin, but I'd be willing to bet that it was
removed for "some consideration" (as they say in contracts).
We must ask ourselves, what would have been the fate of this
structure had it been allowed to remain in situ?  What has been
 
the fate of those structures left behind? Not all such removals
 
must per force be defined as robbery. Stewardship, protective
custody, and related concepts may sometimes apply.  Indeed, it
might
fairly be argued that its very removal, and its reconstruction
in
the Pergamon Museum, may have done much to make this monument
widely known as significant and wonderful.  In the Book of
Revelations it is called "the Throne of Satin."  I'm glad those
 
early Christians didn't get their hands on it -- or maybe they
did.  Without knowing the facts (I admit) I'd be willing to
speculate that the
authorities who maintained jurisdiction over the remains of the
 
Macedonian built, Helenistic Greek city of Pergamon gave
permission for
the site to be excavated, that the Altar of Zeus was provided
in trade (or by way of saying thanks) for the benefit received
by
virtue of the excavation.  I may be wrong in this case, but
outright robbery, in the mode of Napoleon looting art
throughout Europe, probably does not apply here.  Perhaps some
reader can supply the facts on this one for us.  But just to
call it illegal looting may be going much to far.  The post to
which I responded, to me sounded like a vain plea, "I didn't
know
what I was doing when I sold it to you; now I want it back."
 
So, in sum, I'll agree with you that every nation has a right
(nay, duty) to attempt to preserve its "cultural patrimony,"
with the understanding that it is more important to see that it
 
is preserved than greedily let it be destroyed by neglect at
home. Indeed, sometimes, as in the case of the Pergamon Altar
of Zeus, the work may be better suited to be elsewhere.  It did
 
more for resurrecting interest in Asia Minor, in Hellenistic
and Roman use of the area in its current location than it might
have done had it been left where it was built.  Let's make sure
that when someone
says: "It is our cultural patrimony," they don't really mean:
"It is our cultural hegemony."
 
I do regret my use of the Picasso analogy.  You got me there.
But another analogy comes to mind: I'd like to know what you
think of the removal of Egyptian Obelisks and their erection
throughout Europe, including in the atrium of St. Peter's in
Rome.
The great obelisk in Rome, to me, is just as much a part of
17th Century Rome as it is of Ancient Egypt.  Do contemporary
Egyptians, a culture vastly distinct from those previous
residents of that land, have rights to reassemble the
dispursed objects?  "Cleopatra's Needle," as it is called, an
obelisk in New York's Central Park, was a gift.  Is it proper
to take that back too?  Sometimes the best thing you can do for
 
a culture is to send its artifacts about the world to serve as
little emesaries that excite interest in their ancient
homeland.
 
Robert
 
______________________________________
Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont, NY 10538
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