“Preserving the Past: Archaeological Heritage, the Art Market and Conflict in the Middle East” webinar lecture on Thurs. 11/12

Join us on Thursday, November 12 at 6 pm for a webinar presentation of this year’s Nancy Wilkie Lecture in Archaeological Heritage:

Dr. Patty Gerstenblith, Director for the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University, will present “Preserving the Past: Archaeological Heritage, the Art Market and Conflict in the Middle East”

Abstract:
Archaeological sites are looted for the value of artifacts that are sold onto the international art market. The acceptance of undocumented, possibly looted, artifacts by the market and, in particular, by museums, means that we lose the contextual evidence needed to understand and reconstruct the past and knowledge of whether an object is authentic or a forgery. As we now know, the looting of archaeological sites in the Middle East and elsewhere may also help to fund armed conflict and terrorism. This lecture will explore the intersection of these issues and the legal and ethical responses that are intended to reduce the incentives to traffic in looted archaeological materials and thereby promote preservation of the archaeological heritage.

Click here for free registration on Zoom. Co-sponsored by the University of Richmond Department of Classical Studies.