Two new position statements from the American museums community on the
ethics of acquisition in relation to collections

 

On behalf of ICOM's Ethics Committee, I draw colleagues' attention to
significantly changed guidelines from within the American museums community
that strengthen standards in museum practice on the ethics of acquisition.  

 

In the last two months, two important new position documents on the
acquisition of archaeological material and antiquities have been released by
two different bodies within the museums community in the United States. 

 

I wish in this message to emphasise key aspects of these new guidelines for
museum practice concerning acquisition of antiquities to collections in the
USA, and then make brief comment on their wider significance from the
international perspective of ICOM's Ethics Committee.

 

 

(1)          New AAMD standards on acquisition and provenance

 

The first of the new position statements emerged from the Association of Art
Museum Directors (AAMD) on 4 June 2008.

 

Issuing a document entitled "2008 Report of the AAMD Subcommittee on the
Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art", the AAMD has
highlighted that this new Report:

.         "Recognizes the 1970 UNESCO Convention as providing the most
pertinent threshold date for the application of more rigorous standards to
the acquisition of archeological material and ancient art. Widely accepted
internationally, the 1970 UNESCO Convention helps create a unified set of
expectations for museums, sellers, and donors."

 

.         "States that AAMD members normally should not acquire a work
unless research substantiates that the work was outside its country of
probable modern discovery before 1970 or was legally exported from its
probable country of modern discovery after 1970."

 

.         "Provides a specific framework for members to evaluate the
circumstances under which a work that does not have a complete ownership
history dating to 1970 may be considered for acquisition."

 

.         "Announces a new section of the AAMD website where museums will
publish images and information on acquisitions of ancient works, in order to
make such information readily and publicly accessible."

 

.         "Affirms the value of licit markets for the controlled sale of
ancient art and archeological materials as an effective means of preventing
looting."

The complete "New Report on Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and
Ancient Art Issued by Association of Art Museum Directors" (AAMD, 4 June
2008) can be downloaded at the following location:

http://www.aamd.org/newsroom/documents/2008ReportAndRelease.pdf

 

(2)          New AAM standards on acquisition and provenance

The second of the new position statements emerged from the American
Association of Museums (AAM) in a media release on 13 August 2008.

 

Issuing a document entitled "Standards Regarding Archaeological Material and
Ancient Art", the AAM has highlighted that its new statement of standards:

.         "provides clear ethical guidance on collecting such material so as
to discourage illicit excavation of archaeological sites or monuments";

 

.         "emphasizes proper provenance of . objects and complete
transparency on the part of the acquiring institutions";

 

.         "require[s] museums to have a publicly available collections
policy setting out the institution's standards for provenance - that is,
history of ownership - concerning new acquisitions of archaeological
material and ancient art";

 

.         "[urges] museums . [to] make publicly available the known
ownership history of all such objects in their collections"; 

 

.         "recommend[s] November 17, 1970, the date on which the UNESCO
Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,
Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property was signed, as the
minimum date to which museums should require a documented provenance for
future acquisitions".

 

The announcement of new "Standards Regarding Archaeological Material and
Ancient Art"  (AAM, 13 August 2008) can be accessed, and the full document
downloaded, at the following location:

http://www.aam-us.org/pressreleases.cfm?mode=list
<http://www.aam-us.org/pressreleases.cfm?mode=list&id=147> &id=147

I now wish to highlight an aspect common to these new releases: namely that
both bodies have taken the "1970 UNESCO Convention" as the threshold date
around which their guidelines for museum acquisitions and stricter
provenance research in the United States are now organised as a common
standard.  

The year in which the United States formally endorsed the UNESCO Convention
was in fact later - in 1983.  Therefore, in a strictly legal framework, 1983
has until now tended to be the significant threshold around which tighter US
controls on provenance of objects considered for museum acquisition were
focused.  However the American museums community has now generally moved the
threshold date back to 1970.

This enables me to highlight a crucial difference between the standards
required by law and the standards of conduct to which an ethical
consciousness within a strong museum profession aspires: it strives for
standards of public good and collective care of heritage that may exceed
what is required by law alone.  

The formal adoption of 1970, as the agreed year after which all ethical
standards on provenance research for acquisitions in the US have been
raised, reflects a desire by the American museums community to lend its
strength to international norms.  In publishing these new guidelines, the
American community is demonstrating how an ethical consciousness in the work
of museums can raise common professional standards higher in the concern for
heritage, exceeding the position that may be required under national law
alone.  

On behalf of the ICOM Ethics Committee, I emphasise the increased strength
provided in this new position from the United States museums community -
especially through AAM - and acknowledge its support to ICOM's own work on
ethical standards through museum networks internationally.  Numbering about
30,000 members (therefore somewhat exceeding ICOM's own membership), AAM
represents the largest museums community operating within one country.  That
this community has resolved to tighten its own guidelines on the ethics of
acquisition, in a shared effort against illicit trafficking of cultural
objects through strengthened agreement around "international norms", is of
the greatest support to museum standards on behalf of heritage protection
internationally.  

While honouring AAM and its current President Ford W. Bell, I wish to pay
tribute especially to the work of ICOM colleagues in the United States whose
efforts over some years have been promoting closer links in the work of our
two organisations concerning ethical standards for museums.

Special thanks are due to former AAM President and a former Chair of
AAM-ICOM (now ICOM-US), W. Richard West.  As Founding Director of the NMAI
within the Smithsonian's museums, Rick West's representation of the American
museums community in ICOM's significant gatherings for a good part of a
decade has been immensely significant in encouraging closer contacts between
the two bodies.  This has also ensured the presence of a significant AAM
leadership voice in many conversations through which the fundamental work of
museums (and especially concerning standards of professional practice) is
shaped and advanced internationally.   

Tribute is due also to current Chair of ICOM-US, Nina Archibal, for
continuing these efforts;  and to Peggy Loar some years before her when
holding the same position.  Peggy Loar in the 1990s first raised discussions
in CIMAM (ICOM's International Committee for Museums and Collections of
Modern Art) around the need for higher standards and retroactive provenance
research internationally on holocaust-looted works that had come into the
permanent collections of art museums since World War II.  

Two further colleagues I particularly thank for recent advocacy work on
ethical standards that has promoted closer liaison between the US and ICOM
networks are Erik Ledbetter of AAM, and Dr Regine Schulz, of the Walters Art
Museum and formerly Chair of CIPEG (ICOM's International Committee for
Egyptology).  Finally in this short, and by no means complete, list I
acknowledge Gary Edson (of Texas Tech University), who served on the Ethics
Committee of ICOM when the revised ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums (2004)
was accomplished under the chairmanship of Geoffrey Lewis.  Regine Schulz
and Richard West (himself formerly a member of ICOM's Legal Affairs
Committee, and most recently a member of the AAM ethics committee that has
formulated the new AAM "Standards" on acquisition) both continue to serve
for a second term on the Ethics Committee of ICOM.

From the international vantage-point, all of these colleagues have
significantly assisted international museum efforts in heritage care.  They
have offered their time and expertise, and carried the presence of the
American museums community into many networks where international
consciousness and cooperation around ethical standards are promoted.  These
efforts consolidate the museums community worldwide and crucially help to
disseminate its work and underlying ethical values through more than 110
countries where ICOM National Committees advance such international efforts
"on the ground" on a global scale. 

Many thanks are finally due to AAM's ethics committee itself, from the
Ethics Committee of ICOM, for the new Standards on the ethics of acquisition
that have been released in the last week.  Along with the new AAMD Report
released in June, the two documents accomplish new benchmarks supporting
international efforts in highly significant ways.

 

Bernice L Murphy

Chair, ICOM Ethics Committee 

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