Antiquities in the New York Times again.

Investigators seized 27 antiquities from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including this marble head of a Greek youth dated to the third to second century B.C.Credit...The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Antiquities taken from the Met

Once again, for the second time in three weeks, an article about antiquities being seized from the Met appears in the NYTimes. The last one was about Cambodian pieces being seized, this time it is classical and Egyptian. And once again pieces that were part of the public domain here in the US are being taken, and returned to the “country of origin” for an uncertain fate. 

 

I recognize that looted antiquities is a problem in that it involves the destruction of archeological sites and loss of context, but I don’t think the best solution is what is being enforced here. First it makes targets of public museums, and takes out of public view objects that enriched the museum going public. When pieces are returned, they end up in smaller museums, if they are displayed at all, and very few people see them. Italy loves to have exhibitions of returned pieces, but after they end, where do they go? I have been around long enough to remember going to visit the Euphronius krater at the Met, only to have it returned to Italy. When I went to the Etruscan Museum in Rome, I did see it again. However, this is a barely visited museum, and the vase had no special placement and was out of place there, as it is Greek and not Etruscan. So the vase went from a place of honor where it was seen by the many thousands of people who go through the Met each week, to a small museum which hardly anyone knows about. 

 

I am not denying that the trade in antiquities has been a shady business, particularly in the 1970’s to 1990’s, and I saw much of that first hand in my early career as a dealer of ancient art. But I don’t like to see pieces taken off public view here. Italy and Egypt both have more art then they know what to do with, none of the pieces in discussion here add anything to their cultural patrimony. Anything that can be learned from them can be done in NY as well as Italy. As for the idea that stolen is stolen and things should be returned to the rightful owners, that works if you accept the premise that art belongs to the State and cannot be owned privately. Because that is the effect of these laws, that declare that everything found in the ground belongs to the government. That isn’t how that works here, where private individuals have ownership rights. 

 

As it the case of the Cambodian pieces at the Met, I think a better solution is to acknowledge the correct provenance, even transfer ownership to Italy or Egypt but to leave the pieces on view, on long term or permanent loan to the Met. If crimes were involved in how they reached the market and the museum, prosecute those, and go after the people who sold them. But let us not strip our encyclopedic museums here.

 

The Metropolitan Museum and its Asian collection

Illustration from NYTimes article

NYTimes article on Cambodian objects at the Met

A very interesting article appeared in the New York Times on August 18th (the link is above)  titled, "Cambodia Says it has found its Lost Artifacts: In Gallery 249 at the Met". Well yes, the Asian galleries at the Met are full of pieces from SouthEast Asia, including Cambodia. Given the attitudes of the time these pieces entered the museum, and the political chaos of the region which was then at war, we can be certain that many were were looted by todays standards. At the time, the entire antiquities market operated with little concern for the issue of cultural patrimony. Now a reappraisal is occurring, and the Asian collection at the Met is the focus here. 

The question is, this history happened, and what do we do about it now. The most common answer I read, is that stolen is stolen and to return everything. Unfortunately with ancient art, which is generally found in the ground, and has no ownership history before discovery, all of it could be considered stolen if the nations declare that all cultural property belongs to the state. Which is fine and good if you think we should atomize culture and have everything return to the nation of origin. But what an impoverished world that would be, we could only have American art here, and Western European art? Nothing from ancient cultures, not even from the Mediterranean world, let alone Africa, Asia and the the other Americas?

I wish there was more nuance to the discussion. As someone who loves encyclopedic museums, I don't want to see them disassembled but that seems to be what is happening, bit by bit. And who benefits from this, certainly not the people in New York or the United States, or the many people from around the world that come to see NYC and the Metropolitan Museum. The reason it is such an important museum is the diversity and depth of its collections. You can truly appreciate the range of human expression across time and from all over the world. My life has been dedicated to the appreciation of ancient art, and in more recent years, early Chinese Buddhist sculpture. To understand it, seeing Indian and Southeastern Asian sculpture puts it in perspective, something I could do visiting the Metropolitan Museum. The richness of the collection with the many examples available of these disparate cultures amplifies its educational quality. To strip away significant examples would diminish the museum and the experience. While I may be a rare bird, that is the whole point of an institution such as the Met, which is not catering to the lowest common denominator. 

Nowhere in the public discussion do I read about the value of encyclopedic museums, rather it is all about the provenance of the objects. Standards have changed since these collections were formed, which is something I will write about more fully in the future. But they exist now, and are in the public sector. They may not be owned by the public, but they are on public view and available to the public. In fact it is the visibility to the public that makes these museum collection an easy target for these ideologically driven investigators. 

I would like to have the value of encyclopedic museums acknowledged and balanced against the legitimate concerns about looted art. Maybe a solution could be to transfer ownership to Cambodia in this case and leave the pieces on view in the Metropolitan Museum on long term or permanent loan. In the rare case of a site specific object or one of such importance that it has no parallel in Cambodia, have them returned. The pieces in the museum can serve to promote Cambodia and inspire people to visit as well as educate people about the accomplishments of this amazing culture.

Mangrove swamps at Sayachaltun, an easy outing on the Gulf

 

Alex and I went on an outing, to the Reserva Ecologica Sayachaltun near Telchec Puerto on the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan close to Merida. I heard about it from a post that popped up on my feed on Instagram, no doubt a paid promotion, but it worked. Seductive photos of people in kayaks going into the mangrove swamps. There is a large area of them on the coast, just in from the beach, almost all along the coast around Progreso. One passes over them when driving to the beaches there, but I have not really seen them. Thus this idea of a tour appealed. 

Alex on the boardwalk to the boats

One passes through the restaurant, which is a typical beach place with thatched palapa roofing, and plastic chairs, but in the end, very good food. However that was after our tour. We opted for a gondola tour, which turned out to be wise. Under the thatched roof above is the dock, and there was a fiberglass boat with guide waiting. One good thing, no motors, the water is very shallow, and mostly clear when you get to the mangroves, and the guide stands in the stern of the boat, poling the boat forward. Thus, it was a nearly silent mode of transporting one through the reserve, and while birds and fish still were disturbed by our approach, we still got to see a lot of them. For me, most interesting, were the many puffer fish which I saw, of different sizes. Recognizable by their distinctive patterning and box like body when not inflated, I knew what they were from above but had never seen them in nature, only in books and films, or aquariums. 

not my photo, I could not capture a photo myself, they were too quick

Above is a google images photo, as I could not take a photo myself, the fish were too quick for my iphone. It is not exactly the type I saw, but gives you an idea of how distinctive a pufferfish is, even not blown up. And of course, there were many other fish, of types I didn't know, and different sizes as one would expect. No big ones though, these shallow waters are mostly home to smaller fish.

Going into the mangrove swamps

Going from the lagoon into the swamp itself is to go into another world. With the help of the guide we saw small crabs which lurk in the trees themselves and colorful larger crabs on the edges. And of course lots of small fishes. The highlight was the Ojo de Agua, where we docked and walked along a short boardwalk to a clear pool with a strong upwelling of fresh water, the key to the Yucatan and the mangrove swamps. The geography of the Yucatan does not permit for rivers, all the water is underground and here in these cenotes and ojos de aqua, the water runs into the swamps, keeping them brackish. In fact, the abundance of fresh water allows some mangrove trees to grow taller, and one can see from a distance where a likely source of fresh water is by finding what appears to be a hill, but is rather a clump of tall trees in the midst of otherwise very low mangroves. From the guide I learned to identify the three types of mangroves, there are red mangrove, black mangrove and white mangrove. Each can be identified by their root structure. Otherwise, they appear the same, all have glossy green leaves, and look much alike. The white mangroves appear to be the ones capable of growing the tallest, but I only deduce that because they were tall around the Ojo de Agua that we visited. 

My feet dangling in the Ojo de Agua with the fish

A very worthwhile and instructive outing about an hour outside of Merida.  I was impressed by the guide's interest and commitment to the preservation and protection of the mangroves, as he spoke about it during the tour. 

In the photo above you see two types of mangroves, on the right the red, which has root buttresses going down into the swamp around it, and on the left the black, whose auxiliary roots rise up out of the ground around the main plant. These auxiliary roots are the key's to the mangroves ability to survive in the salty water along the oceans edges. And they provide the structure that protects the fish, birds and animals that are abundant there, and protect the coast from storm surges and erosion. 

The murals in the Palacio de Gobierno de Yucatan

After two years of being closed due to the pandemic, the Palacio de Gobierno on the Plaza Grande in Merida is now open. I have missed seeing the series of murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco painted in the 1970’s, and being able to share them with newcomers to Merida. These murals and the grandeur of the Palacio de Gobierno were pivotal in helping me understand Mexico and in making the decision to move here.

 

I grew up in the Southwestern US, in Arizona and New Mexico, and I spent much of my childhood on the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations. We moved a lot when I was a child. I identified with the Indians, and aspired to be a Hopi Katchina dancer, memorizing their songs and dances when I was about 5 years old. I also wanted to be a medicine man. As a family, we made outings to natural and historic sites in the area, and one of the most memorable for me as that of Canyon De Chelly, a beautiful deep canyon with a level sandy bottom flanked by high sheer sandstone walls that has caves intermittently in the walls. These were used by the Navajos as places to hide from the white men who were at war with them, but they didn’t provide the refuge hoped for, the white men shot their guns into the openings of the caves and the bullets ricocheted off the walls, killing everyone inside the caves. This image was indelibly burned into my mind, that of the white men persecuting and killing the Indians. Therefore, when we were studying the history of the Americas in high school and read the story of the conquest by Bernal Diaz, I was smitten with a fascination and admiration for the Aztecs and the other Mesoamerican cultures of Mexico.  Bernal Diaz writes that when the Spanish first crested the pass leading into the Valley of Mexico, they were awestruck by the vista before them. They saw the lush valley surrounded by mountains, and a large lake, surrounded by ordered cities. In the center of the lake they saw the splendor of Tenochtitlan, with enormous causeways leading to it across the waters of the lake. They had never seen anything like it and he wrote that it surpassed his ability to describe it, it appeared like a fairy tale to the Spaniards. I read everything I could about the Aztecs and Mayans, and regaled anyone who would listen to me, about the glories of these civilizations and reveled in the gory details of their sacrificial rites. 

 

But because of my love for the pre-Columbian civilizations, in my mind I could not embrace modern Mexico, or forgive the Spanish the destruction of these great cultures. It is one reason I didn’t travel to Mexico when I did begin to travel, going to Europe where lay the Roman Empire. However, friends and former neighbors of mine had moved to Mexico, to a city I had only dimly heard of and knew nothing about, Merida. I decided I should finally go see a Mayan ruin, and never imagined that I would fall in love with Merida and move here, as I now have. I stayed that first trip, in a hotel close to the Zocalo, the Mansion in Merida, and that first afternoon walked around the Plaza Grande. The Palacio de Gobierno was open until late into the evening so I visited it and saw the murals. They completely changed my mind about modern Mexico. They depict the pre-Hispanic Mayans with such pride, and describe the horrors of the conquest and subjugation of the indigenous people with brutal honesty. The murals are unapologetically socialist and political, which for me was refreshing to see. I can think of nothing comparable in the US, where in contrast we have denied the horrors of slavery and its role in our history. I realized I had misjudged Mexico, that while the conquest was one of humanities great crimes, the Mexicans recognized that, and efforts were made to acknowledge and atone for it. Mexico is a mixed nation where the Spanish interbred with the native peoples and the culture is a mix of both. Far from perfect, but at least they are seemingly honest about it. 

 

I do think these murals are important to understanding the history of the Yucatan and that of Mexico, and missed being able to visit them and share them with friends who are visiting or new to Merida. I am happy they are open, and highly recommend going to see the murals to those who have not yet done so.

 

To learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Castro_Pacheco