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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · 10d

Banjo giving you her best come hither look.

Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · 12d

ISO narrative non-fiction books that braid together 3 separate story-threads (eg 3 different characters or 3 distinct chronological moments, etc). I know of many that do 2 (e.g. Devil in the White City with the murderer and the planning of the fair); am seeking a book that does 3! Recs? #Booksky

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jul 22

Reposting mostly so I can find; this reading list would make for a great freshman seminar!

Jeremy Millar @jeremymillar.bsky.social · Jul 21

A request for help: what are your favourite pieces of writing on art? It can be just a sentence, or paragraph, not necessarily an entire essay or book. I'm helping to gather some pieces to share with young people (14–19 yrs old), and have some things already, but am keen to hear what you think too.

Johannes Vermeer
A Lady Writing
c. 1665

Shown from about the knees up, a pale, smooth-skinned woman in a fur-lined yellow jacket looks out at us as she sits writing at a table in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces the table to our left. She turns her head to gaze at us from the corners of her dark gray eyes under faint brows. She has a wide nose, and her pale lips are closed. Her light brown hair is pulled back and held in place with white bows, and gleaming teardrop-shaped pearl earrings dangle from her ears. Her lemon-yellow jacket is trimmed with ermine fur, which is white with black speckles, at the cuffs and down the front opening. A full, elephant-gray skirt falls to the floor beneath the jacket. Both hands rest on the table, and she holds a quill in her right hand, farther from us, on a piece of paper. She leans forward in her wooden chair. The back panel of the chair is covered in black fabric and lined with brass studs. Two gilded finials, carved into lions’ heads, face the woman’s back with mouths open. The table is covered with a celestial-blue cloth crumpled near the left edge of the canvas. On the table are a strand of pearls, a pale yellow ribbon, and a black box with three brown panels studded with pearls around silver keyholes. Two pewter gray vessels are visible just beyond it, in front of a second chair, which faces us. On the putty-gray wall behind the woman, a framed painting hangs in the upper left quadrant of the composition. The painting-within-the painting is done in muted tones of brown and shows a cello and other unidentifiable objects.

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jul 15

"thought to have adorned the floor of a bedroom in a Pompeii home" ... Would love to see a single comparandum for this.

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jul 15

I'm skeptical.

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jul 15

Is anyone troubled by the fact that this is standard *fresco* imagery that has been translated to *mosaic*? That is a common practice of forgers (familiar iconography, fancier medium). Non-mythological erotic scenes in mosaics are extremely rare (I know of only 1 other example & it is questionable).

Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · Jul 15

Pompeiian mosaic news!

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Erotic mosaic stolen by Nazi captain in second world war returned to Pompeii

Wehrmacht officer gave relic to German citizen whose family contacted Italian heritage officials after his death

www.theguardian.com

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 29

"Private English Collection, Thence By Descent": maybe the most non-informative provenance ever! Are they trolling us?

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 29

Horrifying, but NYT fails to mention the sculptor's ties to the KKK and also the desecration this monument represents to the Lakota Sioux at what had been a sacred site. These facts should be part of the conversation whenever we talk about this monument. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Room for One More on Mount Rushmore? (The President Wants to Know.) (Gift Article)

Let’s review how we got here, and closely examine what the rock would allow.

www.nytimes.com

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 26

I keep thinking about why it failed so hard compared to the excellent Past Lives.

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 26

Huh! Would love a pdf.

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 4

@rogueclassicist.bsky.social @artcrimeprof.bsky.social @museumofloot.bsky.social @davidwjgill.bsky.social

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · Jun 4

Bubon fans: the Babesch organization kindly published the text of the talk I gave last month in Leiden about the looting and circulation of the statues, in which I also imagined how they might have been arranged and rearranged on the pedestals in antiquity. www.babesch.org/byvanck-lect...

The eighteenth Byvanck lecture – BABESCH

www.babesch.org

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 31

Waiting for someone to say something about their enormous collection of Benin Bronzes (numbering something like 150, I believe?), whose rightful ownership was apparently not reconsidered at this opportune moment…?

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 5

Obviously the seller has made a deeply unethical choice, but let's not overlook how unconscionable Sotheby's behavior is here too in agreeing to handle (and legitimize) this sale. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Buddha's sacred jewels head to auction - should they be returned to India?

Buddha’s sacred jewels, unearthed in 1898, head to auction at Sotheby’s, raising ethical concerns.

www.bbc.com

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 5

I wrote something arguing something similar: cardozoaelj.com/from-excepti...

FROM EXCEPTIONALISM TO SOLIDARITY: THE RHETORIC OF THE CASE FOR THE PARTHENON SCULPTURES’ RETURN

Elizabeth Marlowe Volume 41, Special Issue

cardozoaelj.com

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... For a better model of how museums can discuss past wrongdoing, shifting ethics, and new understandings of their responsibilities to diverse stakeholders in their gallery spaces, see the recent example at the Asian Art Museum. exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/...

Moving Objects: Learning from Local and Global Communities - Exhibitions - Asian Art Museum

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Stroll through 6,000 year...

exhibitions.asianart.org

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... that claims to address the "legal and ethical aspects" of its collecting history, it should be ready to acknowledge its own mistakes honestly. Otherwise, it's just spin masquerading as transparency ... (11/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... cultural property don't count and will be ignored unless U.S. law enforcement gets involved. It is also remarkable that the museum would characterize its decision to sue that law enforcement agency as "many months of productive discussion." If a museum is going to have a wall panel ... (10/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... had "received no legal challenges to its ownership until 2023." But in fact, Turkiye has been asking for the statue's return since 2012. The implication of the museum's statement is that requests from sovereign nations for the return of their stolen ... (9/12) www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... for acquisition," that only reveals how out of step the CMA's standards were compared to all the other museums that took Inan's work seriously and said no to documented plunder. The "legal and ethical aspects" panel also states that the museum ... (8/12) hyperallergic.com/862516/cleve...

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... why none of those other museums had been willing to risk buying it. Yes, the seller might have "claimed to be the rightful owner," but everyone, including Cleveland, knew the truth, thanks to Inan's research. If the "reported modern history of the sculpture met the CMA's standards ... (7/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... starting in 1979, that tied the thefts at Bubon to the statues that were circulating on the American market, including this Philosopher statue. Yes, for the 19 years that the statue was on the market, it had been "publicly exhibited in several other institutions," but there's a reason ... (6/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... the CMA recognizes Inan's work, noting that it "remains fundamental to understanding Bubon and its statues" and even including a photo of her in the panel on the ancient city. But her research wasn't just about "how the statues were arranged atop the bases." It was her publications, ... (5/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... quite unusual for how well-documented its illegal origins were. Unlike most looters, the ones at Bubon in 1967 had failed to keep their activities a secret, attracting the immediate attention of both Turkish police and Turkish archaeologists such as Jale Inan. It is lovely that ... (4/12)

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Elizabeth Marlowe @lizmarlowe.bsky.social · May 4

... in the United States, the seller claimed to be its rightful owner, and the reported modern history of the sculpture met the CMA standards for acquisition." This implies that there was nothing remarkable or questionable about this acquisition at the time. In fact, this statue was ... (3/12)

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