“Responsible Stewards” of Classical Antiquities?

Abstract

This article considers the relevance of the Society for American Archaeology's 2018 “Statement on Collaboration with Responsible and Responsive Stewards of the Past” for imported antiquities (specifically, “classical” ones—that is, from Mediterranean regions). Various practical, legal, and ethical differences between collecting imported versus domestic objects make it difficult to identify “responsive and responsible stewards” of the former. An obstacle to responsible stewardship of privately owned classical collections—and to collaboration between classical archaeologists and collectors—is the 2008 acquisition guidelines issued by the two leading professional organizations in the museum field. I argue that the best home for unprovenienced and poorly provenienced antiquities collections is in university museums, where their complicated object biographies can be fully researched, taught, and displayed.

Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies

“…An organisation such as the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries could perhaps oversee these donations of private collections to university museums to ensure that various legal and ethical parameters are met (Marlowe 2022). In this way, repatriation could be part of a larger story that includes both prerepatriation research and ongoing, post-repatriation relationships.…”