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- Title
"But We Didn't Steal It:" Collectors' Justifications for Purchasing Looted Antiquities.
- Authors
Thompson, Erin L.
- Abstract
This article looks at beliefs of collectors about archeology and antiquities in order to explain why modern collectors are willing to tolerate a certain amount of illegality in the process of getting antiquities from the ground to their collections. These justifications for purchasing potentially looted artifacts work by providing reasons to explain why the collector is a better owner for the antiquity than the government of its country of origin. The justifications fall into in two main strands: first, that country of origin does not deserve to own the antiquity; and second, that the collector possesses some special power of understanding of the object that gives him or her the right to own it.
- Subjects
ANTIQUITIES collecting; ART thefts; COUNTRY of origin (Commerce); ART treasures in war; STOLEN art industry
- Publication
Journal of Art Crime, 2015, Issue 13, p59
- ISSN
1947-5934
- Publication type
Article