None of their Business II

The AIA has issued a manifesto condemning the Smtihsonian for planning to exhibit artifacts from the Belitung shipwreck. See http://www.archaeological.org/news/advocacy/5260

As stated previously on this blog, the archaeological community has been fond of saying at CPAC meetings and elsewhere that it is no business of others to lecture source countries on how to manage their cultural resources.

But, apparently, all that goes out the window when the AIA hierarchy issues pronouncements about public-private partneships to salvage wrecks.

For more, see http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/search/label/Indonesia and
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2011/04/none-of-their-business.html

For the Smithsonian's view of the controversy, see
http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/SW-CulturalHeritage.asp

Archaeologists Seek to Sink Indonesian Treasure Exhibit

For years, archaeologists have taken the position at CPAC hearings that Americans have no right to lecture foreign countries about how their legal systems treat cultural property. Apparently, however, this does not extend to places like Indonesia, which allows commercial treasure hunters to exploit wrecks as long as they also record their findings.
See
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/03/smithsonian-shipwreck-exhibit.html?ref=hp Archaeologists hope the exhibit will be cancelled because the Indonesian government partnered with commercial treasure hunters rather than funding some university to do the work.

The exhibit itself should be interesting. The artifacts provide a testament to the extensive international trade in Chinese goods during the Tang period. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/arts/08iht-singshow08.html?_r=1 I for one hope it makes it to the Smithsonian.

Indonesia Partners with Treasure Hunters

The New York Times reports that the Indonesian Government is auctioning off artifacts found in a 10th c. shipwreck. See http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/worldbusiness/15iht-auction.3543182.html?_r=1

Indonesian museums will only retain what they can reasonably be expected to care for and the rest will be sold off to collectors who will study, preserve and perhaps ultimately donate their purchases to museums outside of Indonesia.

"If it has more economic value than historical value, there is no need to take it for our heritage museums," Sularso [a government spokesman] said. "The government's strategy is to choose the auction house that offers the highest price."

Predictably, archaeologists are angry about this turn of events. They say all the cargo should be retained for study purposes, but Indonesia has decided otherwise and has instead concluded that a representative sample of the artifacts and records of the find should suffice.