James Cuno
Do antiquities still belong in museums located far in time and space from the makers of the artifacts they house? Or do they belong to the government that happens to be in control of the land where the culture once flourished? At the ALCTS President’s Program on Monday, James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, made a strong case for the argument that “we all own antiquity,” and that museums and libraries exist to “keep the past in the public domain for the sake of those who succeed us.”
Referring to the debate over the ownership of the Elgin Marbles — classical Greek sculptures and other artifacts that were acquired by Lord Elgin for the British Museum in the first decade of the 19th century and which Greece would like to have returned — Cuno pointed out that those antiquities have been housed in London longer than there has been a Greek state. (Elgin acquired the antiquities legally from the Ottoman Empire.) In addition, displaying Athenian art from the 5th century B.C. in a wider context where it can be compared to other cultures of the time — the Roman Republic, the Persian Empire, the Han and Mayan cultures — is at least as beneficial as limiting its exhibition to the locale where it originated.
“Many of the great 20th-century collections of antiquities, such as those at Chicago’s Oriental Institute or the University of Pennsylvania,” Cuno said, “were acquired under the system known as partage, which is French for distribution or sharing. Local governments negotiated with foreign excavators to bring their expertise to the region, in partnership with local specialists and scientific societies.” The first choice of anything excavated went to the locals, while the rest could go to the excavating nations for study. “This had the benefit of building both local museums and ancient collections in foreign institutions,” Cuno explained. “Housing artifacts in different countries has multiple benefits: It protects them from any disasters that might occur in one locale, and it encourages others in many countries to become curious about the world and its diverse cultures. If it was a good idea then and people benefit from it now, then it’s a good idea now.”
One audience member asked Cuno how the British might feel if some other country took Stonehenge away from England, but Cuno answered by saying he questioned the value of privileging one viewing context over another. “We know a lot about things that are no longer in their original locations,” he concluded.