A recent blog post on Peter Tompa’s Cultural Property Observer really shocked me.
An article in the Arab News on Monday January 26, 2009 relates that Saudi Arabia has been working hard to retreive “national antiquities”. This is a theme which we have seen a lot in the recent past and the idea of “cultural heritage” is a ralying cry among the extremists within the archeological community.
An argument can easily be made that “cultural property” does not belong to one specific group or nation. Our ancient history is part of mankinds cultural heritage and attempts at repatriation may be doing more harm than good.
In the case of Saudi Arabia, the same article states “‘The commission deals with places of historic importance within the perspective of Shariah and with the intent of protecting them. However, we’ll never allow such sites to be turned into shrines,’ he said. ‘We have to project this heritage in order to prove that the Gulf region is not only rich in oil but also in culture and civilization.’” This is Saudi Arabia’s version of Shariah (sacred law). We are talking about the same government that has interpreted their sacred law in such a way as to justify the destruction of sites of historical importance to the people of Saudi Arabia, Muslims everywhere and mankind’s cultural heritage in general. An article in The Independent of August 6, 2005 points out a statistic which state that “95 per cent of millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades”
From the Unidroit-L list I also read concerning the successful attempt by Turkey to repatriate several antiquities known as the “Lydian hoard”. A facinating article by Britt Peterson of The Nation relates how an important piece of this “repatriated” collection was stolen from the museum. It also points out that “…Modern Turks, who are primarily descended from thirteenth-century Ottoman conquerors, have little in common, ethnically or culturally, with the Trojans, Lydians and Mycenaeans of the distant past. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, Turks have been most eager to tour attractions that showcase relics of their Muslim heritage… These sites each host about a million visitors every year… Compare this with the little museum in Usak, which received exactly 769 visitors between 2001 and 2006, a number that failed to impress the Hoard’s previous stewards: the number of people “who’ve visited those treasures in Turkey,” sniffed a museum spokesman, “is roughly equal to one hour’s worth of visitors at the Met.” ”
Food for thought
Tags: cultural property, destruction of cutural heritage, repatriated antiquities, Saudia Arabia, shariah
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