Getty Curator indictied wrt Antiquities

Slightly unrelated, but in a metadata course, I remember the instructor discussed a metadata schema for tracking museum objects for the purpose of preventing theft or loss. Now I see that it addresses a real problem. There was something in the article about museum policies for only purchasing items from known collections. I guess the burden is on the purchaser unless the object is bought from an auction house or some other intermediary.

The issue goes beyond that because many "known collections" are full of art and artifacts of questionable origins. I think the biggest and most interesting part of the debate has to do with the public vs. private interest. The return of Nazi-looted art to the families of the original owners is the easiest case to get behind (as opposed to say the return of the Rosetta stone) because it's much more recent. Yet it's tough to deal with the idea of great works of art being taken away from public museums and passed back into private ownership.

As muttered on the LA thread, the ever-elusive next level:

Federal agents carried out coordinated raids on four Southern California museums and a Los Angeles art gallery early today, the first public move in a five-year investigation of an alleged smuggling pipeline that authorities say funneled looted Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts into local museums.

Shortly after 7:30 a.m., search warrants were served on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego.

The warrants gave agents broad authority to search the museums' galleries, offices, storage areas and computer archives for objects and records related to the primary targets of the investigation: an alleged art smuggler, Robert Olson, and the owner of a Los Angeles Asian art gallery, Jonathan Markell. Markell's Silk Roads Gallery on La Brea Avenue was also raided.

The warrants are based on an undercover investigation by an unnamed agent with the National Park Service, who presented himself as an eager new collector to Olson and Markell. Both men allegedly admitted their illegal activities to the agent and sold him recently looted objects.

The warrants claim the men also introduced the agent to museum officials who, in dozens of secretly tape-recorded meetings, accepted donations of looted art with values inflated to help the sellers obtain tax write-offs.

In the case of the Bowers and the Pacific Asia museums, the warrants clearly suggest that museum officials were aware that the objects were looted and overvalued and accepted them anyway.

damn national park service has undercover agents?!?

most hilarious black ops team ever

the fighting watershed protectors

my uncle works for the nps i wonder if hes in deep cover

as a mulberry bush?

http://www.taylors-shop.co.uk/acatalog/scary-tree-costume-500.jpg

http://www.anime.com/Akira_Kurosawa/images/03-mo-yojimbo.jpg

Where were they looted from?

looted Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts into local museums

i dunno more specifically. here's all the times has so far.

Huh.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/10/charges-dismissed-against-getty-curator-marion-true-by-italian-judge.html