Story Archives of 'Museums'

Yesterday, Egypt announced that its Antiquities Department had cut off ties with the Louvre. Egypt charges that the museum has refused to return ancient artifacts that Egypt says are stolen. Some of the world’s most cherished museums are embroiled in similar charges and lawsuits brought by countries where the disputed treasures originated thousands of years ago.

The history of the antiquities trade is a long and shady one, involving colonial-era pillaging, rampant tomb-robbing, Nazi looting, crooked dealing, and struggles for power and national identity. Debate continues over where ancient treasures belong – in the world’s most-visited museums, like the Louvre, or in their countries of origin, where conservation and security may be lax. Sharon Waxman is author of Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Art World. Loot digs into the dark history and current controversies surrounding humanity’s ancient cultural treasures.

I spoke with Sharon Waxman when the book was first released. It's now out in paperback.

The Guardian newspaper reported this weekend that a crumbling palace built by Saddam Hussein may be restored as a museum in Basra, Iraq. The port city’s original museum was looted in the 1991 Gulf War. Some of its antiquities stretched back some 5,000 years, including pieces from the ancient site of Eridu, thought to be the first city in the world.

Many of the treasures ended up in the British and Baghdad museums - some damaged, some stolen, some dubiously recovered. Unfortunately, war and plunder go hand-in-hand with the antiquities trade. Its history is a long and shady one, involving colonial-era pillaging, rampant tomb-robbing, Nazi looting, crooked dealing, and national identity. Debates rage over where these treasures belong – in the world’s most-visited museums like the Met or the Louvre, or in their countries of origin, where conservation and security may be lax.

Sharon Waxman is former culture reporter for The New York Times, and she's the author of Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World. The new book digs into the dark history and current controversies in the contentious world of humanity’s ancient treasures. Sharon Waxman joins Word of Mouth on the line from her home in southern California.

Sharon will be appearing at the Cambridge Forum in Cambridge, MA tomorrow evening, Dec. 3. There's more information here.

Today is September 11 - 9/11 - a date now connected in our collective memory to devastating attacks on a bright September morning seven years ago. This morning, members of victims families, survivors and student representatives read the names of 2,751 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks at the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

Solemn observances were held across the country, and ceremonies were also held in Shanksville, Penn., where United Flight 93 crashed. And at the Pentagon, where a memorial park with 184 benches and reflecting pools - one for each victim - was dedicated.

Seven years after Ground Zero became an informal monument and desitination for tourists, just how to re-build the site is mired in politics. Competing interests between the 19 public agencies, two private developers, 101 construction contracters and 33 designers, architects and consulting firms involved has made progress difficult.

Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal calling for a total redesign of a nearby transit hub and for disbanding the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, set up to coordinate reconstruction. Still, plans for a National September 11 Memorial and Museum were revealed on Tuesday. And last week, construction workers erected the first steel column of the 9/11 memorial on the site where the north tower once stood.

According to the latest design, two of the surviving trident arches from the original Twin Towers will be used for the atrium pavilion of the museum, and waterfalls will cascade into two reflecting pools. But while those designs are unveiled to the public, less clear will be how the museum will choose to represent the events of 9/11.

Graham Rayman is a staff writer at The Village Voice. When he was a reporter for Newsday, he covered the September 11th attacks beginning that day and continuing for the next two years. He wrote that there are really two schools of thought when it comes to what the 9/11 museum should include: those who want to commemorate the heroism, sacrifice, and bravery of the rescuers, and those who want to remember the missteps and errors involving emergency response, building evacuation, and faulty construction, and take a lesson from that day. He joins Word of Mouth from New York.

Read Graham Rayman's article about the 9/11 museum in The Village Voice

(USAF photo by Denise Gould)