Tuesday, April 22, 2008

James Cuno on Cultural Nationalism

James Cuno, the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, has a forthcoming book entitled, "Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage." For more about it, see Yale Global OnLine http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=10678. Cuno is a powerful advocate for museums in the cultural property debate. He contends that source country nationalism is ultimately detrimental not only to world-wide appreciation of ancient cultures, but to the very well-being of the artifacts that such nationalistic governments purport to protect. I'm sure his book will be an interesting read and an important contribution to the cultural property debate.

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