Zoom Lecture on Thursday, March 9th, 2023 at 3PM HST

 

Who owns the past? This has become the hottest question in museum and cultural studies around the globe. Should Britain send the Parthenon sculptures back to Greece? Should Benin bronzes be returned to Nigeria? Will that spark a wholesale transfer of museum antiquities? Are there laws, standards or conventions that might govern these questions? What is the role of UNESCO and its World Heritage program? Who gets to interpret the past, and for whom?

These used to be abstract questions, but recently they have become urgent, as Russia has started targeting Ukrainian museums and historic sites for destruction in war, and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu has been agonizing over the handling of Hawaiian burial objects. And now rumors have it that the British Museum and Greece are actually negotiating the return of the "Elgin Marbles," the sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens that are the crown jewels of the British Museum.

In this illustrated lecture, Art Historian Dr. Larry Butler will review the history of international law concerning the holding and use of cultural property, and consider how it may apply to these dramatic changes. None of these questions have simple answers, but we will consider where the conversation is headed now.