Moksha

Scalped from the Art History Newsletter

I read this in the morning and then promptly blocked it out of my mind as too insane to deal with. I thank Art History Newsletter for summing up the inanity so succinctly:

From today’s New York Times, Philippe de Montebello on the Euphronios Krater: “How much more would you learn from knowing which particular hole in — supposedly Cerveteri — it came out of? … Everything is on the vase.” On illicit antiquities: “The truth is — unattractive as it may be — the black market, to a certain extent, is responsible for the preservation of a great many objects.”

I hereby take back what I said before about the somewhat benevolent gesture of the Met. It seems that I fell into the same trap as just about everyone in the museum world who has been heaping praise upon de Montebello and calling this one of the great marks of his legacy. Sigh. His arrogant second quote clearly epitomizes the attitude of so-called "great" western museums.

Because at the end of the day, de Montebello truly feels that the Met has a "right" (maybe a "duty") to "rescue" objects from the rest of the world. In fact, he believes that institutions like his own (and there are few) draw on such dizzying heights of intellect to parse the meanings of art objects that they are certainly above the law.

And if that does not scarily hurl you "Back-to-the-Future-style" into the imperial 19th century, I don't know what will. Ugh.

posted by Moksha @ 10:09 PM