Longing for Home: A Call for Repatriation

Opened in late 2021, MFA Boston’s five new gallery spaces showcase ancient Greek, Roman andByzantine sculptures and artifacts. One such is a sarcophagus rim with procession, a Greek mosaic made with the black-figure technique from the late Archaic period, excavated from Klazomenai. This piece was found only a five minute walk from my house in Urla, Izmir, Turkey.As an international student, it was a peculiar feeling to come face-to-face with an object so close to home, in a museum so far away. I found myself wondering about repercussions of carrying a centuries old artifact across the ocean?

The morality of trafficking historical artifacts must be discussed, as there are sound reasonings for both sides of the argument. Admittedly, there are regions of our modern world where there is lots of political instability and an insurgency of violence. If there is conflict in a region and valuable artifacts have been extracted from there before they experienced any harm, then they get to be protected in rooted institutions. Most famous examples of such institutions that proudly display many artifacts of contested claims of origin include the British Museum inLondon and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. However, under their umbrellas of protection, many objects of significant cultural value have remained intact. An incident where political insurgency led to cultural destruction was in February 2015, when ISIS militant smashed many artifacts in the Mosul Museum in northern Iraq. Many of the destroyed objects,Assyrian, dating back to 7th century BCE and a piece of our collective cultural heritage as humanity. The localization of excavated items from all around the world into world-renowned museums allow more people toto see these articles as part of a bigger cultural fabric with artifacts from many cultural backgrounds.

However, one must admit that the argument for repatriation of historical artworks is sound as well. If all objects from a specific site stays in a museum where they were found, they allow for a complete understanding of the cultural and geographic background to be formed. Localizing artifacts within the context of its geographic origin allow for the viewer to connect with the inspiration, source and landscape, as well as the cultural setting. Repatriation also creates touristic opportunities spread out over many places with specialized exhibitions rather than a few select museums that are forced to store much of their collection away in dark cloisters. A conservationist perspective against trafficking of artifacts is that much less damage occurs when they are being handled, as transportation over long distances often leads to partial corruption of artifacts.

A famous example of damage to artifacts suffering damage due to being smuggled out of their country of origin is the Parthenon sculptures that are now housed in the British Museum, which included the Caryatid Statues also known as the Daughters of Athens. Lord Elgin, who was the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between the years 1801-1803 was struck by the architectural site. After his years in service ended, he came back as an archaeologist, excavated the site, and then proceeded to take many marble sculptures out of the empire.Known as the “Elgin Marbles” were sold to the British Museum in 1816, however, infuriatingly

Lord Elgin carved out the back side of many of the sculptures to make them easier and cheaper to transport. The notion of repatriation, however unfair it may seem to one party, is a widely necessary action that must be strived towards by most rooted arts institutions. Though their collections present our shared cultural past across the globe, however priceless they may be, long to be returned to a familiar soil. In my opinion, in the rare cases where their wellbeing and preservation is outrightly threatened, their originals may be conserved on loan. However, their absence is deeply felt when they have been illegally trafficked to a foreign land. Coming across an artifact from your home in a place thousands of miles away is not a pleasant surprise, it is rather deeply saddening, because it makes me think maybe their needs for climate-control and preservation to prevent decay can simply be solved if they were to come back home. I like to think of this as an artifact’s way of being home sick.

Then how can we mark the absence of a cultural item of historical value? Use of negative space has been a strategy employed by the new museum in Acropolis, Athens. Some museums choose to put replicas of objects where the original would stand, with a note stating where the original resides. I argue for what would be best for the longevity of an artwork. If the artifact’s home is not safe for now, then the temporary preservation offered by the far greater financial resources of an institutionalized museum sounds like a great plan. However, if taking an object away from its excavated soil would endanger even a fragment of it, then just let it be.