Returning Museum Treasures
The repatriation of antiquities according to
who owns what - or better... who should own what!
Streaming December 4, 2024
Today many U.S. museums are facing a reckoning for their aggressive collecting tactics of the past. The Indiana Jones era is over, and there is tremendous pressure on museums to return any looted works acquired during the days when collecting could be sometimes better described as looting and plundering. Join the Saint Helena forum for a facinating discussion of this topic between two museum professionals Jane Milosch and Peggy Loar.
Jane Milosch, the founding director of the Smithsonian's Provenance Research Initiative in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture. She oversees the WWII-Era Provenance Research Project and other cultural heritage work. Her areas of expertise include modern and contemporary art, design, and decorative arts. Her research interests include modern and contemporary art, craft, and design, especially the intersections of art, science, design, and technology.
Among her writings, Jane is the coauthor of Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative 2019) which addresses some of the ethical issues in collecting.
Jane will be interviewed by Saint Helena Forum Advisory Board Member Peggy Loar.
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Peggy Loar is a museum professional with global experience in museum planning and program development, museum architecture and design, and museum leadership. She currently serves as President of International Museum Planning Consultants, a boutique advisory services firm. Prior to this role, she was the interim Vice President for Global Arts and Culture and Director of the Asia Society Museum in New York City and the interim President and Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C. where she facilitated the merger of the Corcoran with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University. Peggy served as the founding Director of the new National Museum of Qatar, in Doha, designed by Jean Nouvel and was the founding President and Director of two American institutions, The Wolfsonian Museum and Research Center in Miami, Florida, and Genoa, Italy; and COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, California.