I read an article this week that had both the optimist in me excited and the skeptic in me awakened. It appears that a new international body is set to be established in order to gather information about the illicit sale of antiquities and establish the "best practice" to fight this crime, creating a database of publicly available information. The new organization will be the "International Observatory on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods" (IOITCG?), and will try to improve cooperation between Interpol and law enforcement agencies, UNESCO, and research institutions, among others. Hopefully, the cooperation between these parties will improve the monitoring, research, and awareness of the illegal trafficking of antiquities.
While the very possibility of any type of organization being created to prevent the destruction and sale of antiquities exhilarates the aspiring archaeologist in me, I have to wonder how this new organization will be any different from all the ones that have come before. They all promise so much, and sure, they help, but in the end it's up to the Average Joe to do his part.
As stated by an ICOM official, the theft of culturally or historically important objects is much worse than the theft of an ordinary object because the loss is felt by a whole society and by several generations of people who will feel deprived of a part of their history and cultural past. Let's not compare this to the loss of just one individual when his personal property is stolen.
The illicit trade of antiquities impacts the world, not just one nation. This point is very well made in the article, since they discuss artifacts ranging from Ancient Nigerian statues to Peruan cloaks and Haitian artifacts, to Ming Dynasty letters and ancient Cuneiform texts from Iraq. Clearly, the illicit trade of antiquities affects everyone, not just the people from these countries, but also the entire world which is being deprived of these artifacts and the information that accompanies them.
As far as IOITCG is concerned, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of this. Hopefully raised awareness and more public information will have a greater impact on the illicit sale of antiquities.
Read the article here.
While the very possibility of any type of organization being created to prevent the destruction and sale of antiquities exhilarates the aspiring archaeologist in me, I have to wonder how this new organization will be any different from all the ones that have come before. They all promise so much, and sure, they help, but in the end it's up to the Average Joe to do his part.
As stated by an ICOM official, the theft of culturally or historically important objects is much worse than the theft of an ordinary object because the loss is felt by a whole society and by several generations of people who will feel deprived of a part of their history and cultural past. Let's not compare this to the loss of just one individual when his personal property is stolen.
The illicit trade of antiquities impacts the world, not just one nation. This point is very well made in the article, since they discuss artifacts ranging from Ancient Nigerian statues to Peruan cloaks and Haitian artifacts, to Ming Dynasty letters and ancient Cuneiform texts from Iraq. Clearly, the illicit trade of antiquities affects everyone, not just the people from these countries, but also the entire world which is being deprived of these artifacts and the information that accompanies them.
As far as IOITCG is concerned, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of this. Hopefully raised awareness and more public information will have a greater impact on the illicit sale of antiquities.
Read the article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment