Artwashing the Past: Context Matters

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 items 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, the Leutwitz Apollo acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the fragmentation of Athenian pottery. While the focus of the studies is on the Mediterranean world, 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 of Anglo-Saxon coins.