Artwashing the Past

Artwashing the Past: Context Matters contributes to the wider discussion about the appropriate due diligence process that should be conducted prior to the acquisition of cultural objects. The chapters were written as museums in Europe and North America were facing a series of claims on recently acquired objects in their collections in the light of the photographic dossiers that had been seized from dealers in Switzerland and Greece. They engage with some of the recent debates over cultural property that include the Ka Ka Nefer mummy mask currently in the St Louis Art Museum, and the Leutwitz Apollo acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. Two of the essays reflect on the recent and controversial metal-detecting finds in England, the so-called Crosby Garrett helmet and the Lenborough Hoard.

David W. J. Gill is honorary professor in the Centre for Heritage at the University of Kent, and academic associate in the School of History at the University of East Anglia. He is a former Rome Scholar at the British School at Rome and Sir James Knott Fellow at Newcastle University. He had curatorial responsibility for the Greek and Roman collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, before moving to Swansea University where he helped to establish The Egypt Centre housing the Egyptological collection of Sir Henry Wellcome. He has received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Cultural Heritage Protection Initiative Award from the International Arts and Antiquities Security Forum. His previous books include Sifting the Soil of Greece: The Early Years of the British School at Athens (1886-1919) (2011), Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator (2018), and The World of Disney: From Antiquarianism to Archaeology (2020).