- S. Mazur, "NYT, Met Sing
to Collectors: Elizabeth Stone I/V. New York Times & Met Museum
Sing To Collectors. 'Dirt Archaeologist' Elizabeth Stone Weighs In,"
in Scoop (New Zealand),
online, March 17, 2006: "... New
York Times chief art critic Michael Kimmelman and Metropolitan
Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello took their 'Who Owns Art'
show last week to Greenwich Village's New School and an audience packed
with collectors." "Eyes are finally opening, for example, to the
knowledge of decades-old collusion of the Met and the NYT regarding antiquities. I'm
referring to the Sulzberger publishing family ensconced on the Met's
board of trustees and acquisitions committee since the 1970s -- as
Oscar Muscarella has established -- while the Times stable of reporters works the
Park and Madison Ave. antiquities soirees." "... Mesopotamian dirt
archaeologist Elizabeth Stone -- an invited panelist who continues to
ask 'Why was I there?' -- has agreed to share her perspective on the
evening." "Dr. Stone is a member of the anthropology faculty at the
State University of New York, Stony Brook."
"Elizabeth Stone: And they
tried to make the argument, which I think is false and certainly is
false to the area that I know, that most of the artifacts found are
found when someone is building a house or plowing or whatever and
what's the poor guy to do. If he takes it into the government, they'll
arrest him for digging up antiquities. Suzan Mazur: They're talking about
digging up antiquities for a percentage on a global basis? Elizabeth Stone: Global basis. All
over the world. Suzan Mazur:
Did you find it odd that there seems to be a disregard for the value of
the site and the culture that produced the antiquity? Never mind
sift[i]ng the soil, the seeds etc. - the story's all on the vase. Elizabeth Stone: I find that
absolutely stunning. And I think that in the article in the NYT, and this was repeated at this
event, but in slightly different words, Philippe de Montebello said
that, well 98% of what we know - and I think he was talking about Greek
vases - comes from the object and not from the context. But you
wouldn't even know that these were Greek without the context. You
wouldn't know what they were, let alone all the other kinds of
information that you can bring in. I mean I mentioned two objects from
Iraq where the context is crucial. One of them is the Mesopotamian
flood myth which predates the Biblical story by at least 1,000 years.
We only know about that because of a series of pieces of unbaked clay
tablets that were stuck together. If those fragments had not been dug
up by archaeologists, they would never have made it into the market
because the market only deals with complete tablets, so they would have
been destroyed under the circumstances. And the other is called the
'White Lady' - one of the most important pieces in the museum. The
piece was stolen as part of the looting of the Iraq Museum, but has
since come back. She was found in a 4th millennium context, so she's
one of the world's earliest pieces of professional sculpture. And she's
incredible. But she would have been dated 3,000 later had she been
found out of context - related to the classical world - because people
didn't sculpt in marble again for 3,000 years. So here is a situation
where the context is absolutely crucial for understanding the object. I
mean it's fine if you want to talk about Greek vases that we know a lot
about. We know the artist and we can slot them into a scheme. But that
scheme is based on a lot of knowledge and material that has come from
Greece."
"Elizabeth Stone: Yeah. That's
especially the point of Professor Appiah who believes in
'Cosmopolitanism.' ... I confess there's a degree to which I do not
disagree. I think it is much better if everybody has access to the art
of the world and understands the art of the world and not just the art
from within their own political borders. But the point is that if
you're stealing it, no one is going to be very enthusiastic about
having a lot of these long-term exchanges and loans which would make
all kinds of art accessible to a wide range of people. Suzan Mazur: And then you're
putting it in a private museum. I mean the Met is a private institution
- not to mention a secretive one - although it gets public money. Elizabeth Stone: Professor Appiah's
idea is that art shouldn't just be in museums but should be in
everybody's houses so they can live with it. He's very much somebody
who thinks that the market should allow art to circulate everywhere so
everybody can have everything. ... I do think it's a complicated
process because Americans would not have cared about what happened to
the Iraq museum, for example, if they hadn't already been exposed to
Mesopotamia through going to museums. That I think it is true. And I
think museums serve a purpose under those circumstances whether they're
public or private. So long as they open their doors. And I do think our
understanding of the cause and effect and the morality of collecting
has undergone an evolution after 1970. That was a real wake-up call for
a lot of people. Archaeologists with whom I'd worked had a few
antiquities at home back then. Then in 1970 the profession woke up and
agreed. Then some museums like the Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago and the university museum in Philadelphia stopped purchasing
antiquities."
"Suzan Mazur: You're an Iraqi
antiquities expert. Was there discussion about the looting of Iraq to
any great degree? Elizabeth Stone:
Only when I brought it up. Suzan
Mazur: You brought it up and were there comments from the
others? Elizabeth Stone: No.
Except isn't Iraq a mess. ... Actually, the one conversation that was
brought up was that nobody knows where the Iraqi stuff's going right
now. It's not showing up in the market. That was in the discussion,
that is peculiar. It might also be related to the American Association
of Museum Directors' recent statements on ethical policies, which are
that you shouldn't buy anything that is unprovenienced if we haven't
known about the object's existence for 10 years. The solution for the
dealers and museums, of course, is just to build more warehouses. Then
once it's been out of the country for 10 years everything's supposed to
be fine. So that may be what's going on with the Iraqi stuff, which is
covered by the embargo." "Elizabeth
Stone: I thought of pulling out of the event right at the end
when it was clear after I looked at the publicity. I think that on the
New School website I wasn't mentioned at all. And on the NYT website, it was de Montebello,
Cuno, Appiah and 'others'."
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Photo: "Elizabeth Stone examining looting at the site of Larsa,
Iraq.
Photo Credit: Courtesy National Geographic Magazine" [from 2003]
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