Who Owns Objects?: The Ethics and Politics of Collecting Cultural Artefacts

Who owns cultural objects? and who has the right to own them? The contributors to this book have thought long and hard about the ethics and politics of collecting, from a variety of professional perspectives: archaeologist, museum curator, antiquities dealer, collector, legislator. The book is the outcome of a series of lectures and workshops held in Oxford in October-December 2004. It brings together some stimulating and provocative opinions, that would not usually be found together; archaeology and cultural heritage students rarely come into contact with antiquities dealers or collectors, for instance; museum curators rarely get to know the production processes and rationales behind the legislation and ethical codes they have to abide by. The aim is to provoke thought and debate on this topical and sensitive subject area.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Brodie)
Overview and Assessment after Fifty Years of Collecting in a Changing World (George Ortiz)
Archaeologists, Collectors, and Museums (John Boardman)
Barriers or Bridges? Museums and Acquisitions in the Light of New Legal and Voluntary Codes (Paul Roberts)
Who Owns Objects? A View from the Coin Trade (Ursula Kampmann)
Who Owns Objects? A View from the Antiquities Trade (James Ede)
Cultural Property: a Contribution to the Debate (Nicholas Mayhew)
Recent UK Measures against the International Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects: Examining the New Regulatory Framework (David Gaimster)
Repatriation and its Discontents: the Glasgow Experience (Mark O'Neill)
Index

Professor Chris Gosden holds the Chair of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He has published extensively on Celtic art, archaeology, landscape and identity.