Writing Project 2: Annotated Bibliography
Human Rights Violations as Exhibited Through Napoleonic Looting
Part 1:
Aly, Götz, and Jefferson Chase. The Magnificent Boat: The Colonial Theft of a South Seas Cultural Treasure. 1st ed., Harvard University Press, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674293199.
Clarke, Colleen Margaret, and Eli Jacob Szydlo. Stealing History : Art Theft, Looting, and Other Crimes against Our Cultural Heritage. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
This focuses on art theft as presented in popular media and its neglect in the American police force. The authors cite The Thomas Crown Affair and debunk the stereotype that art thieves are well educated art lovers. Art thieves often destroy artworks to remove evidence of the theft. This brings about the bigger issue of destruction of cultural property. The authors reference the Italian art police, and use this security model as the idea of how American governments should treat art crimes (the art police is similarly referenced in the Greenland novel). The book closes by comparing European and American attitudes towards art, and traces the issues of art protection in America to the economic and monetary value placed over the concern for historic preservation.
Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 29 July 1899. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/hague-conv-ii-1899/regulations-art-56?activeTab=undefined
The 1899 Hague Convention specifies in Article 56 that the seizure of art is prohibited. This is a key concept to address when concerning the human rights context of the argument of looting. From a more modern perspective, this is an example of a law/ code which is established to prove that looting is of such a cultural significance, that it constitutes a human right violation when enacted. Articles 28 and 47 address “pillage” more generally, but still state its prohibition.
Cunliffe, Emma, and Paul Fox, editors. Safeguarding Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention: All Possible Steps. Boydell & Brewer, 2022. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv24cns77. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.
Article 21 of the 1954 Hague Convention demands the return of objects taken forcibly from foreign lands after 1956. This could serve as context for the overall issue of looting, which would then lead into the specific tracing of looting at the time of Napoleon, before these codes existed, and draw comparisons in ideologies between the two periods. Because this Convention is from 1954 and the Hague Convention was drafted in 1899, a short analysis of the change in attitude towards looting over time could be made.
Cuno, James. “Culture War: The Case against Repatriating Museum Artifacts.” Foreign Affairs 93 (2014): 119–24, 126–29.
This article focuses on the importance of the Museum as a space for cultural engagement and advocates for its maintenance. This is a good source for a counterargument to the repatriation of museums. Cuno asserts that the function of a museum is to provide a common space for artworks of various cultures to exist. By doing this, it allows the viewer to experience a wide array of cultural materials which otherwise would not be easily accessible to the average person. Cuno argues that art should belong to humanity, and museums provide a space to showcase works from various regions in a generally accessible manner.
Cuno, James B. Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1968.
Fanon bases his argument on Marx’s theory of the bourgeois/ proletariat split. Fanon argues that, because the third world was set up to be reliant on the first world, it is impossible for Marx’s split between the bourgeois/ proletariat to occur. In context with the question of looting, Fanon’s argument could be used to further explore the Greenland book. Ultimately, this would serve as an ideological argument for the political split between developed and less developed countries, and the Venus would be a case study to understand how the removal of art could reinforce this schism
Gildenhard, Ingo. “Commentary.” Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86: Latin Text with Introduction, Study Questions, Commentary and English Translation, 1st ed., vol. 1, Open Book Publishers, 2011, pp. 55–166. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjt10.7. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.
This is a transcription of Cicero’s defamation case against Verres. A large part of Cicero’s argument rests on the fact that Verres looted art. This serves as another historical example of the issue of legality with the forced movement of artworks. In Cicero’s arguments,Verres’ looting is meant to present an argument depicting his immoral character, which once again reinforces the idea that the removal of pieces from one country to another, even in Cicero’s time, was considered unethical. This source could provide historical insight to the attitudes about looting prior to any formal laws being written on the subject.
Gilks, David. “Attitudes to the Displacement of Cultural Property in the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon.” The Historical Journal, vol. 56, no. 1, 2013, pp. 113–43, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X12000453.
Gilks traces Napoleon’s plundering of pieces which stressed masculinity and dominance, as seen in many ancient Greek and Roman marble sculptures. Gilks also focuses on religious pieces, such as the Wedding Feast at Cana, which represent a unification of the Church and State. From the perspective of countries in which the objects were taken, a loss of culture is felt, as well as a sense of forced assimilation. This article would be useful to serve as a baseline source to contrast the two perspectives of the conqueror/conquered dynamic as it pertains to the removal and repositioning of art in war.
Goff, Alice. “The Honor of the Trophy: A Prussian Bronze in the Napoleonic Era.” Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement, edited by Leora Auslander and Tara Zahra, Cornell University Press, 2018, pp. 27–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1w0dddh.7. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
This focuses on the Adorans Statue as a case study for the power dynamic between France and Prussia during the time of Napoleon’s plunder of Europe. Prussia’s determination to maintain ownership of the statue implies the desire to retain some national individuality within the French Empire. Goff performs a formal analysis of the Adorans and notes its almost “prayer-like” position. From the Prussian perspective, this statue’s placement in France would be a visual depiction of the Prussian surrender to the French Empire. In this argument, Goff points out the material culture of the Adorans and uses it to convey a political message between the powers of States.
Greenland, Fiona. Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy. The University of Chicago Press, 2021, https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226757179.
The main argument centers around looting and tomb robbing. Tomb raiders attest that their practice is in the service of “protecting” individual pieces, whereas the state argues that raided art is national property. Greenland then shifts to a broader argument around cultural belonging/ property and uses the Venus of Cyrene. She traces the object’s history from its origin in Libya, its removal to Italy under Mussolini’s command, and its return to Libya in 2008 by then Prime Minister Berlusconi. Greenland closes the text with the argument that the sheer movement of the Venus indicates the superior cultural power of Italy. As it relates to the overall question of cultural belonging and heritage, this text provides a detailed analysis of the Italian perspective and attitude towards art of antiquity originating in Italy.
Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta, and Lyndel V. Prott. Cultural Property and Contested Ownership: The Trafficking of Artefacts and the Quest for Restitution. 1st ed., Routledge, 2016, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315642048.
Jonathan Petropoulos, Petropoulos. Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World. Yale University Press, 2021.
Lindsay, Ivan. The History of Loot and Stolen Art : From Antiquity until the Present Day. 2nd ed., Unicorn Press Ltd, 2014.
Mihr A, Gibney M. Human Rights and Art. In: The SAGE Handbook of Human Rights. Vol 2. SAGE Publications, Limited; 2014:433-459.
This text focuses on the role of art in human rights. Mihr and Gibney sketch the history of art in the context of the Nuremberg trials, and point out how Nazi looting was considered a crime against humanity. Artists such as Ai Weiwei, Goya, and Picasso are used as examples to show how the visual medium conveys both history and human rights violations. While this text is more broad than the others, it provides a good foundation for the argument of human rights violations. It also serves as a practical application for the question of the intersection between human rights and art.
Quatremère de Quincy, (Antoine-Chrysostome), et al. Letters to Miranda and Canova on the Abduction of Antiquities from Rome and Athens. Getty Research Institute, 2012.
Letters 2-5 from de Quincy to Miranda focus on the abduction of monuments in Italy. The main focus of de Quincy’s argument is that the Italian State is the most advanced in terms of art production in Europe. If this historical trove of resources were to be removed, the quality of artwork produced would subsequently diminish. The main argument focuses on the relation of artworks to their common source in Italy, and that the removal of such works would be a disservice both to the artwork itself and to its historical context.
Ronald, Susan. Hitler’s Art Thief: Hildebrand Gurlitt, the Nazis, and the Looting of Europe’s Treasures. First edition., St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
Saltzman, Cynthia. Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese’s Feast. Picador, 2023.
Thompson, Erin. Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present. 1st ed., Yale University Press, 2016, https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300221008.
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, and Potts, Alex. History of the Art of Antiquity. Getty Research Institute, 2006.
The second part of the book traces a history of art in Greece, and focuses on instances of spoliation and restoration in times of Alexander the Great through the Roman Empire. In this regard, “belonging” and homogeneity of artistic quality matches de Quincy’s arguments with the situations in Italy at the time. This could potentially provide a comparative case study for the two if used. Also, Winckelmann includes a section dedicated to the Apollo Belvedere, which could provide a helpful analytical source if this object is used as a particular reference in the paper.
Part 2:
The origins of this research began with the Nuremberg Trials and the declaration that looting of art was considered a human right violation and a crime against humanity. In reading the Hague Convention (1899), Article 26 is one of the first written legal documentations to assert that seizure of historical monuments or works of art are prohibited. From a legal perspective, it wasn’t until recently that the looting of art became a documented crime, and I wanted to explore this concept of a “human rights violation” if the same laws today were applied to another period in history where a mass looting of art and displacement occurred.
The period that first came to mind to explore was Napoleonic looting, as it is one of the largest cases of plundering and cultural displacement in Europe. It was through the conquest of Napoleon that the Musee du Louvre was instituted, and Napoleon prized himself on obtaining objects which referenced Ancient Greece or Rome, as he wanted to make France the new Rome of Europe. One of the most insightful primary sources from this period is Quatremère de Quincy’s Letters to Canova and Miranda, where he asserts the disaster will befall Italy, in particular, if works from the region were spoliated and moved to Paris. De Quincy focused heavily on the looting of Italy, as Napoleon concentrated a large effort on the removal of Roman antiquity to Paris, but Italy was also considered the artistic capital of Europe at the time. Reading about Italy through De Quincy, I decided to focus on a particular object in Italy, rather than the broad frame of Napoleonic looting, and it was in Greenland’s novel, Ruling Culture, that the Venus of Cyrene was introduced to me.
What is fascinating about the Venus of Cyrene is that it raises the question of cultural heritage between the “first world” and the “third world.” The sculpture was originally found in Libya by a team of Mussolini’s explorers. When its Ancient Roman origins became apparent, the statue was taken back to Italy, only to be returned to Libya in 2008 by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. This back-and-forth movement of the sculpture raises questions of cultural belonging, but also could serve as a gateway into the power dynamics of the “first world country” (Italy) over the “third world country” (Libya). This is where Fanon comes in, as Wretched of the Earth presents an argument that the third world can never fully develop itself because it had never been liberated by the first world. In taking this argument and tracing the movement and political arguments about belonging with regard to the Venus of Cyrene, an argument could be made about power dynamics across borders and developed/developing countries.
Another lens revealed through this research is the historical perception of looting prior to any legal codification about the subject. Again, De Quincy was the starting point, as his writing is a primary source from the 1800s which advocated against looting. De Quincy cites Cicero in his letters, and this is how I came to find the court case in which Cicero uses the looting of art as a testament to Verres’ poor character. The main point of this source is to show that, even in the B.C.s, looting was seen in a negative light, which creates a continuity throughout history of arguments against looting.
In this research, I was surprised to find the breadth of scholarship on individual objects with deep histories of looting, rather than more general time periods being analyzed. As previously stated, one object which I found personally fascinating was the Venus of Cyrene, as the additional “first world” and “third world” dynamic could be explored by tracing the history of this object. I find the political and artistic intersection a fascinating space, and reading about Napoleon’s interest in antiquity, I understand how the visual representation of a State through art isna political statement. Taking this idea and combining it with historical perspectives and attitudes towards looting, an analytical essay could be written which traces the history of a particular object (most likely the Venus of Cyrene), attempts to recontextualize its cultural displacement through modern legal framework, and also dissects the political message its movement implies.