Title:
Safe havens : art theft from fragile states
Authors:
Beurden, J. van
Year:
2008
Serial number:
6
Journal:
The Broker
Pages:
7
-
8 + 26
ISSN:
1874-2033
Language:
eng
Subject:
Culture, Society and Religion
Keywords:
cultural heritage
,
religion
,
illegality
,
trade
,
arts
,
international cooperation
Abstract:
What can be done if the government of a fragile state or a rebel movement neglects or threatens to destroy a country’s cultural heritage? While ‘temporary’ safe havens are now accepted as a solution to the problem, many museums are refusing to return stolen pieces of art. Examples are Cambodia in the 1970s, Ethiopia in the 1980s, and more recently in Bangladesh, where mostly Islamic traders are stripping Hindu temples and Buddhist shrines, which to them are worthless. In the late 1990s, UNESCO agreed that the Afghanistan Museum in Exile, in Bubendorf, Switzerland, could act as a safe haven for Afghan cultural objects. It imposed six conditions, the most important being that the museums should return everything to Afghanistan, at a time and to an institution of UNESCO’s choosing. That time came in October 2006, when the museum closed its doors and started to prepare for the return of all objects to the Kabul Museum.
Organization:
The Broker
Country:
Afghanistan
,
Bangladesh
,
Cambodia
,
Ethiopia
Category:
General
Right:
© 2008 IDP. This article has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.
Document type:
E-article
File:
138008.pdf