Dr. Patty Gerstenblith
Distinguished Research Professor and Director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University College of Law
Archaeological sites are looted for the value of their artifacts, which, in turn, are later sold onto the international art market. The acceptance of undocumented, possibly looted, artifacts by the market means that we lose the contextual evidence needed to understand and reconstruct the past, along with the knowledge of whether an object is authentic or a forgery. Additionally, as we now know, the sales of these objects may fund armed conflict and terrorism. This lecture will explore the intersection of these issues in the effort to promote the preservation of archaeological heritage.
Sponsored by the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, the FAS Office of Diversity and Faculty Development, the Yale Anthropology Department, the Yale Archaeological Studies Program, and the Yale Peabody Museum