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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

Even if they were products of colonialism, that is not grounds for such justification. Unlike the baseless claims here, we know the Benin Bronzes were made of the literal profits of slavery. Yet it would be ridiculous to downplay their looting on that basis.
www.livescience.com/benin-bronze...

Benin Bronzes were made from metal mined from Germany that was used to purchase slaves, study reveals

The Benin Bronzes were made from rings used to purchase slaves in Africa. Now, scientists have found that most of the metal was mined in western Germany.

www.livescience.com

Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

Again the Louvre theft is framed with baseless claims that the jewelry was the product of colonialism in an attempt to downplay the crime. This time the claims are offered by someone who is self-described as being the author of revenge fantasies celebrating such acts. These are not serious people.

It’s a real sense of entitlement,” she says. “Like, ‘These are our jewels, this is our heritage, of course these belong in our museum, and no one will try and take them from us.’ But they are the product of colonial empires. They were already stolen property. The idea that they [might be] dismantled and the jewels cut down and sold — there’s a symbolism to that.”

Heist narratives really hold our ambivalence about wealth and the wealthy,” says Aya De Leon, a UC Berkeley writing professor who is both the poet laureate of Berkeley and a prolific writer of novels in which heists are a form of social justice exacted by women of color on behalf of their communities.

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

This opportunism also ironically mirrors the most anti-repatriation types, who use every theft, destruction, or looting in a museum in the developing world as proof why Western museums should never repatriate. Using fresh heritage crime for ideological point scoring is grotesque no matter the side.

Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

What's sad is that there are repatriation discussions to be had about some colonial-era items in the Louvre. However, behavior like this will only hurt those discussions. No museum would want to listen to such a bad faith actor who only see opportunity in that museum's misfortune, nor should they.

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

It's revealing how she delegitimizes the stolen items, claiming they are the direct products of colonialism. Dr. Smith offers no specific evidence, but makes the claim hoping the reader cannot cut through the academic rhetoric. This sort of 'expertise' is unfortunately all too common in the field.

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 4d

Here we have a criminologist downplaying a crime because it was committed against the wrong victim. The hypocrisy while not surprising, is disappointing. Dr. Smith could not wait a week to instrumentalize the theft to attack Western museum collections and score an ideological point.

Dr Emiline Smith @dremilinesmith.bsky.social · 4d

Sunday’s heist at the Louvre has stirred a lot of headlines. I argue @hyperallergic.com that the real vulnerability lies not in museum security, but in the colonial foundations of Western museum collections. #ArtTheft #Decolonization #Repatriation #PublicMemory
🔗 hyperallergic.com/1051113/the-...

The Louvre Heist Was a Colonial Wake-Up Call

The stunning theft reveals more than a failure of security: It lays bare how austerity, neglect, and unresolved colonial legacies continue to haunt the museum.

hyperallergic.com

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 6d

Important and detailed analysis on the extent of looting and cultural heritage destruction in the Sudanese Civil War and the heroic work done to document the destruction and protect Sudan's heritage. Also reveals that this year a list has finally been drafted of known looted antiquities from Sudan.

Text from the article "Archaeology and cultural heritage in wartime: Sudan 2023–2025": Since the liberation of Khartoum from the RSF, NCAM has also increasingly led efforts to inform international institutions about looted artefacts. A preliminary list was submitted to Interpol. Presentations were made at a UNESCO conference in Cairo (April 2025) on combating the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage, with relevant authorities including police and border guards in attendance. NCAM made contact with the International Council of Museums to prepare a Red List for Sudanese collections to help customs and police officers recognise the types of objects that might be smuggled. A preliminary list of looted objects was also submitted to UNESCO.

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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 6d

NEW Sudan is a diverse country with a rich cultural heritage that is under threat from conflict. In a guest editorial, Habab Idriss Ahmed & Geoff Emberling discuss the brave efforts of the Sudanese antiquities department (NCAM) to protect Sudan's #archaeology 🏺

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Remains of a destroyed building: the Amara West archaeological storeroom (credit: Shadia Abdrabo, National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums).

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 6d

I think if the British Museum were reduced to ash tomorrow, some academics and activists who ostensibly care about heritage would cheer and others would crack similarly bad jokes. To these people heritage only matters if it can advance their ideological positions.

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 6d

It's sad to see an expert in art law joke about the theft and likely destruction of heritage for likes. Between this, the Drents Museum theft, and the revelation of the scope of the looting of Sudan's National Museum, 2025 has been a terrible year for heritage in museums. It's no laughing matter.

Erin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 6d

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.

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ChinaFile @chinafile.bsky.social · 11d

In case you missed it last week:

We gathered a few friends and colleagues to write about the extraordinary life of Jerome A. Cohen (1930-2025), renowned lawyer and scholar of Chinese law.

Remembering Jerome A. Cohen

Jerome Alan Cohen (July 1, 1930 – September 22, 2025) was a renowned American lawyer who was one of the foremost foreign scholars of Chinese law. After studying law at Yale, Cohen embarked on a career...

www.chinafile.com

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Egas Moniz Bandeira ᠡᡤᠠᠰ ᠮᠣᠨᠢᠰ ᠪᠠᠨᡩ᠋ᠠᠶᠢᠷᠠ @egasmb.bsky.social · 14d

Mongolian has some wild Eurasian etymologies! 🥰 My favourite one is nom ᠨᠣᠮ ('book'), from Greek νόμος, via Sogdian and Old Uyghur. The semantic shift 'custom, law' > 'scripture' > 'book' is lovely.
Btw nomos also has a Syriac > Arabic result, nāmōsā ܢܳܡܘܿܣܳܐ > nāmūs ناموس 😀
@kebuhcah.bsky.social

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 17d

This is not a new story? Jabal Maragha was destroyed in 2020, before the civil war. Not sure why this article is being published now implying these events happened recently.

www.bbc.com/news/world-a...

Sudan's Jabal Maragha: Illegal gold diggers destroy ancient site

The 2,000-year-old Jabal Maragha site was thought to have been a small settlement or a checkpoint.

www.bbc.com

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 23d

I often find that the more dodgy or questionable an offered antiquity is, the more heavily an ALR check is promoted in its 'provenance.' An illusion of safety at the uninformed buyer's expense indeed.

Also, what is happening to the ALR now that IFAR has shut down? Is it entirely separate now?

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 24d

I too wish the Met was more forthcoming on the specifics, but also because it would likely dispel more sweeping claims about Elias Solomon David, given he was a dealer (not collector) in such material decades before these specific 1950-dated acquired objects and Iraq had never found issue since.

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 25d

New today: my essay in @jodemocracy.bsky.social on The Golden Age of Transnational Repression: www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the...

The Golden Age of Transnational Repression | Journal of Democracy

Authoritarian regimes are targeting exiles and diaspora communities in more places than ever before. Activists, journalists, and regular people living abroad must watch their backs…

www.journalofdemocracy.org

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 26d

The decline of language study in the US makes our country weaker, less capable, less intelligent, and increasingly myopic. Language opens up the world while knowing only English closes off much of the world. If you agree, contact your government officials to tell them to reinstate Title VI.

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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 27d

Last night, we watched an episode of Zillow Gone Wild wherein a young girl in the 1970s convinced her parents in Lake Tahoe to paint her bedroom like the palace at Knossos and I have never felt closer to a small child.

A house in Lake Tahoe that has a very Minoan theme.

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 27d

UNESCO spent two years building a small database of stolen antiquities where the objects history and provenance are more obscure than what many museums provide today.

Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · 27d

UNESCO's new Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects ironically has no discussions of antiquities theft or trafficking. None of the objects in the 'museum' have context of when, how or why they were stolen; only the below boilerplate explanation as to why an object is included.

museum.unesco.org

Objects displayed in the Platform have been submitted to UNESCO by Submitting Countries, according to specific Guidelines prepared and circulated by the UNESCO Secretariat. Notably, the objects must be ones whose disappearance and theft constitute an appreciable impoverishment of the national cultural heritage of the Submitting Country.

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China Books Review @chinabooksreview.com · Sep 23

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jerome A. Cohen, the eminent scholar of Chinese law. Our condolences to his family and all those who loved him.

He authored many books, most recently the memoir, "Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law."

(1/2)

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Sep 21

A Rush to Save Ancient Artifacts in Gaza Highlights All That Has Been Lost

A bombing delay enabled rescue of some objects, but archaeologists fear the wider loss of antiquities from the many cultures living there over thousands of years.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/w...

A Rush to Save Ancient Artifacts in Gaza Highlights All That Has Been Lost

www.nytimes.com

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Idanthyrsus @idanthyrsus.bsky.social · Sep 12

I can't speak to the metallurgic analysis, but the art historical work is quite bad. Not only do the examples look little like the St. Mark's Lion (and are made for an entirely different context), there are numerous examples of lions from the Tang that show little similarity that they ignored.

Marble Guardian Lion, Tang Dynasty from the Cleveland Musuem

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Dr Emiline Smith @dremilinesmith.bsky.social · Sep 11

Standing with the people of Nepal during these challenging days. May the voices of protest be heard with respect, and may a path of dialogue and compassion guide the nation toward unity and healing. 🕊️❤️

hyperallergic.com/1040874/hist...

Historic Singha Durbar Palace Destroyed as Nepal Protests Turn Deadly

Police used live ammunition, water cannons, and tear gas on demonstrators mobilizing against government corruption.

hyperallergic.com

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · Sep 9

This covers well the damage of what’s happening, and I’ll add: people outside this ecosystem underestimate how much information it produces that others rely on for their knowledge of world affairs

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · Sep 9

"On August 29, the State Department leadership notified staff that it was terminating more than two dozen agreements...designed to create common language and tactics to push back against Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and terrorist influence campaigns overseas..."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

America Surrenders in the Global Information Wars

The U.S. is reorienting its foreign policy to protect governments that manipulate and suppress information.

www.theatlantic.com

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