Tag Archives: Cultural Heritage

Anindilyakwa People Celebrate On-Country Return of Heritage Repatriated by Manchester Museum

Posted on: November 6, 2023 by Elizabeth Pearson

The Anindilyakwa People will hold an on-country return celebration on Groote Eylandt on 21 November 2023 for 174 cultural heritage items repatriated from Manchester Museum. The repatriated cultural heritage items include 70 culturally significant dadikwakwa-kwa (toy dolls used by Anindilyakwa girls, decorated with ochre designs and cloth), seven errumungkwa (arm bands), a turtle shell map, […]

Art Antiquity and Law – October Issue

Posted on: October 11, 2023 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The October issue of Art Antiquity and Law is now back from the printers and hard copies will be sent out to subscribers this week and online subscribers will be able to access it very soon. This issue contains articles on a range of topics starting with an analysis of the potential impact of climate […]

V&A Agreement with Yemen to Care for Ancient Objects Found in London Shop

Posted on: September 27, 2023 by Hugh Johnson-Gilbert

Last week the V&A announced that it had reached an agreement with the Republic of Yemen (‘Yemen’) to research and temporarily care for four ancient carved funerary stelae that had been discovered by an archaeology enthusiast in an interior design shop in East London. The museum’s announcement explained that the objects, dated to the second […]

Implementing UNDRIP into Canadian Law

Posted on: August 7, 2023 by Olivia Shaw

A Question of Restitution Is a new wind of cultural migration blowing? Around the world, cultural artefacts are being returned from museum collections to their homelands. In particular, a growing socio-political awareness of historic wrongs has focused critical attention on the relationship anthropology and museology share with Indigenous peoples worldwide. As policies and practices on […]

Tensions Between Economic Development, Planning Controls and Protection of Archaeological Heritage: Destruction of the Megaliths at Carnac

Posted on: August 3, 2023 by Marie Cornu

Carnac is one of the most important sites for megalithic architecture, protected in large part from the end of the nineteenth century as a historic monument under the Law of 30 March 1887, the first ever legislative text to introduce a binding legal regime in the area of heritage protection. Carnac appeared on the list […]

Contested Naval Heritage: Brazen Cheek or Common Sense?

Posted on: July 24, 2023 by Paul Stevenson

Media reports in recent weeks have reminded us of a fascinating case study on contested heritage rights, shipwrecks and salvage. Vaunting a proposal to smelt down a bronze eagle which formerly adorned a Nazi warship, the President of Uruguay has found himself in the middle of a cultural heritage storm, having opined that:  “It occurred […]

21st Century “Scholar Warriors” Carry Legacy of Monuments Men & Women into Ukraine

Posted on: July 17, 2023 by Stephanie Drawdy

In the last several years, the U.S. Army has been raising up a generation of modern-day “scholar warriors” to follow in the pioneering steps of WWII-era Monuments Officers. These warriors are Army Reserve Civil Affairs Soldiers who, like their predecessors, have a range of specialties that they can utilise to advance the mission of defending cultural […]

Artwork-Based Activism, Climate Change and the Right to Protest

Posted on: June 26, 2023 by Tom Lewis

On 12 June 2023 two environmental protesters were convicted by a Vatican court of aggravated damage  to the Laocoön statue, one of the most precious treasures of the Vatican Museums’ collection, believed to have been carved in Rhodes around 40-30 BCE. The protestors, Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, are members of the group Last Generation […]

The Vitruvian Man highlights puzzling elements of Italian cultural heritage laws

Posted on: April 24, 2023 by Chiara Gallo

The ‘Art Collection’ series of jigsaw puzzles by Ravensburger is an ever popular pastime and features many of the world’s most renowned masterpieces, from the likes of Haring and Klimt to Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact, Ravensburger’s recent reproduction of Da Vinci’s Uomo Vitruviano as one of its jigsaws has sparked a legal […]

Export deferred Portrait of Mai to be co-purchased by NPG and Getty

Posted on: April 3, 2023 by Alexander Herman

An incredible piece of news dropped on the rather inauspicious time of Friday afternoon. This was the announcement of a plan by the National Portrait Gallery in London (NPG) and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to jointly acquire the famous ‘Portrait of Omai’ by Joshua Reynolds (left), a work that has been export deferred […]