Lawrence Kaye led a lecture at Queens College on October 26, 2011 in honor of the Year of Turkey. Kaye’s lecture introduced the issue of Turkey trying to safeguard and recover its cultural heritage. The lecture is held from a legal point of view and shows examples of what Turkey must overcome when dealing with the art world. There are many cases, both in the past and in the present, that are representative of these issues and many of them were illustrated during this Turkey lecture.
A prime example of Turkey’s cultural heritage being jeopardized would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art court case. The museum was suspected of controversially acquiring a set of golden treasures. The museum was accused of taking and holding in secret, the “Lydian Hoard” which was taken from the tombs near Sardis, Turkey. The MET kept the story low key until one day someone recognized a new set of coins at the museum that closely matched the description of the Lydian Hoard. Obviously, the evidence of the museum’s guilt was becoming clearer. Not only is theft shown in this case but also the issue of identity theft arises when these same Turkish coins are labeled as “East Greek Treasure”. This case is one among numerous that depict Turkey’s struggle to keep its identity intact.
Lawyer and archaeologists have been working together on cases such as these to restore Turkey’s heritage and to reunite Turkish artwork with its proper locations. After many long and complex legal battles, some positive results have been attained. In the case of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, after a six-year legal battle, an agreement was made to return more than 200 gold, silver, and bronze objects from the sixth century B.C. to the Turkish Government within 30 days. A success story for Turkey and it’s cultural heritage preservation. This is a success that doesn’t only make lawyers proud but it is one that can also make artists such as myself very happy. Artwork deserves to be and must be credited properly. The locations of art pieces should be agreed upon with the museums and the artwork’s original country. This way all threats of improper identification and theft can be resolved.
This lecture definitely exposed me to the legalities found in the art world, which I had no knowledge of before, and also reminded me about my philosophy pertaining to art. Every day there are copyright law cases, plagiarism, and other incidences where people try to take credit for someone else’s work. Kaye expanded my concept of this by showing that this problem doesn’t only occur between two people or two companies but it can happen between two countries as well. Overall, this lecture was phenomenal and I look forward to attending the next one.
The world’s museums are FILLED with booty stolen from other countries. This is a highly controversial issue. The most famous is the story of the Elgin Marbles, stolen from Greece in the early 1800’s and the pride and joy of the British Museum for nearly 200 years until the Brits finally agreed to give them back!
Here is the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/arts/design/24abroad.html?scp=3&sq=elgin%20marbles&st=cse
Turkey is just one of the places that have been looted repeatedly for centuries.
Foreigners are not the only ones jeopardizing Turkish art.
Unfortunately, most of the Turkish secular values that were adopted in the governmental transition to democracy are endangered by Erdogan and the AK Party. The international community spends so much effort crying foul over the AK Party’s effect on the Turkish Judicial system, they don’t have time to notice the damage they do in other areas.
Turkey’s unique position as the “crossroads between the nations” allows it an exquisite variety of art (as you can see if you check out the Turkey exhibit in the Queens College Library!), one that deserves to be protected from the increasing threat of Turkish political extremism.
This isn’t a one-man job; it is a matter important enough that investigating UN committees should be well-backed.