Art and Antiquities: Colonialism, War, Provenance, and Restitution
Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara - Cambodia 9th century
A Panel Discussion
Monday, November 4
12:00 Lunch
12:15 - 1:30 Program
Mandel Center for the Humanities Reading Room (303)
Presented by both the Mandel Center for the Humanities “Humanities for Global Affairs” initiative and the Global Community Engagement program of COMPACT
The past few years have seen the global expansion of debates and action regarding the return of ‘art’ that was forthrightly looted or acquired in colonial contexts in which consent is in question. A stellar panel featuring individuals with expertise in museums and provenance, the history of art, and law and philosophy, will discuss processes, policies, and promises and pitfalls related to the restitution of 'art' all over the world. Panelists will talk about how research on the origins and history of looted or otherwise unethically acquired objects is conducted, and how the objects’ return might contribute to the reweaving of social fabrics torn apart by violence. Conversely, they will also ask how restitution might feed into problematic nationalisms and other systems of division and inequity.
Please join us for an informal lunch at noon, before the program gets underway at 12:15.
Sadler Senior Curator of Provenance at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) will discuss the development of the MFA’s colonial-era provenance research project, a primary goal of which is to identify objects in the museum collection that may have been looted, forcibly sold, or stolen during 19th- and early 20th-century periods of conflict or colonial occupation.
Assistant Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis, will consider the relationship between cultural heritage law, which treats heritage as a property right, and implications for repatriation within a dialogue about nationalism and decolonization.
Hiram W Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS University of London, will share the story of the 147-year-long transformation of a divine Cambodian statue into an archaeological remain, a colonial tourist attraction, and a Euro-American Asian Art 'masterpiece' before making its way back to a much changed Cambodian home. Probing the social and interpretive implications of this transformation, she will ask how restitution can contribute to cultivating decolonial practice in art historical and curatorial fields.
