[CPProt.net] Unprovenanced antiquities: to study or not to study?

[MSN CPPnet]

Unprovenanced antiquities: to study or not to study?
University College London has set up an inquiry to examine the origin of
“looted” bowls on loan from a Norwegian collector
June 23, 2005
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11822

By Martin Bailey 

>From News:
LONDON. University College London (UCL) has set up an inquiry into the
provenance of 650 incantation bowls on loan from Oslo collector Martin
Schøyen, following claims that they were looted in Iraq. The bowls, mainly
dating from 400-700 AD, were used by Mesopotamian Jews to place on doorways
as a form of spiritual protection. Most are in Aramaic, with a smaller
number in Mandiac and Syriac. 

The Art Newspaper has established that the incantation bowls were borrowed
from Mr Schøyen in 1996 by Professor Mark Geller of UCL’s Institute of
Jewish Studies. It appears to have been a relatively informal arrangement
with Mr Schøyen, probably the world’s greatest private collector of
manuscripts and texts. Professor Geller said that “it happened
spontaneously—the bowls were in London and it seemed a good idea to have
them catalogued”. 

Professor Geller is delighted that a major collection of incantation bowls
should be available outside of Iraq, since he alleges that Jewish and
Israeli scholars have been barred from publishing on the examples in the
Baghdad Museum—a claim rebutted by other specialists. 

Cataloguing of the Schøyen collection was handed over to Professor Shaul
Shaked, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who comes to London
periodically. Nearly a decade later, it is unclear when his research will be
published, although he hopes that in the coming months it will be “brought
closer to completion”. In the meantime access to the Schøyen bowls has been
barred to most other scholars.

Jordan or Iraq?

In 1996 little was known about the provenance of the Schøyen examples,
although they were accompanied by Jordanian export papers. The bowls might
possibly have been discovered in Jordan, but the main area where they are
found is in present-day southern Iraq, and also in adjacent areas of Iran
(although Iranian bowls would have been unlikely to have passed through
Jordan). Critics believe that the Schøyen bowls were taken from
archaeological sites in Iraq, probably shortly after the 1991 Gulf War, when
serious looting began.

Professor Shaked told The Art Newspaper last month that he has “no clear
idea of the ultimate provenance” of the collection. “Bowls of this kind have
been found most often in excavations in Iraq, but also sometimes in Iran. I
have heard that these bowls, or most of them, were acquired from Jordan, but
it is impossible for me to reconstruct their recent history beyond that.”

Whatever the provenance, Professor Shaked believes that scholars are “duty
bound to investigate anything of historical significance” within their
field. “Some scholars hold the view that no scholarship should be conducted
on unprovenanced objects. I do not agree with this position.”

Mr Schøyen told The Art Newspaper that “solid and verified information on
the provenance has been made available to the UCL inquiry”, with which he is
co-operating. The bowls are currently being stored at a UCL warehouse near
Euston. 

The investigation is chaired by lawyer David Freeman and its two other
members are Cambridge archaeologist Lord Renfrew and Sally MacDonald,
manager of UCL’s Petrie Museum. Its terms of reference are about to be
announced, but the key issue will be to examine the evidence on the
provenance and if this is unclear, then consider whether academics should
work on unprovenanced antiquities. The implications will therefore go way
beyond the arcane study of incantation bowls. It is hoped that the UCL
inquiry will be completed later this year. 

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11822