International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:7th Aug '08
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This important book explores the role played by museums and national governments in the return of cultural objects.
This important book investigates the removal and return of cultural objects from occupied communities from the age of colonisation to the present day. Focusing on governments' and museums' responses to the question of restitution, it is essential reading for archaeologists, international lawyers and all those involved in cultural resource management.While the question of the return of cultural objects is by no means a new one, it has become the subject of increasingly intense debate in recent years. This important book explores the removal and the return of cultural objects from occupied communities during the last two centuries and analyses the concurrent evolution of international cultural heritage law. The book focuses on the significant influence exerted by British, U.S. and Australian governments and museums on international law and museum policy in response to restitution claims. It shows that these claims, far from heralding the long-feared dissolution of museums and their collections, provide museums with a vital, new role in the process of self-determination and cultural identity. Compelling and thought-provoking throughout, this book is essential reading for archaeologists, international lawyers and all those involved in cultural resource management.
'Thoroughly referenced, with tables of cases and instruments and a chronological chart of treaties, containing a forest of footnotes and a veritable smorgasbord of acronyms, this book is nevertheless written with exemplary clarity, keeping the reader's attention.' Antiquity
'International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects is impressive … a wealth of information and gives time-depth to an argument that some might think quite recent. … Indigenous peoples have in Ana Filipa Vrdoljak a strong advocate and her book deserves a wide Western readership.' Antiquity
'The author provides an engaging, highly important and brilliantly written study on a problematic subject-matter that will keep challenging the leading museums of the world.' Kunstrechtsspiegel Magazin des Instituts für Kunst und Recht
'Vrdoljak has effectively deployed the results of her extensive research and analysis to recontextualize the tangible legacy of indigenous peoples as something more profound than objects of curiosity, admiration and scientific commentary. … What broadens her project impressively for the general reader is her attention to the critical relationship between the restitution of cultural heritage and general topics of international law – in particular, state succession, state responsibility, human rights and humanitarian law. … Vrdoljak's empirically based insights in International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects make an invaluable contribution to the growing literature on the significant role of indigenous cultural heritage in colonial and post-colonial history.' American Journal of International Law
ISBN: 9780521732406
Dimensions: 247mm x 173mm x 23mm
Weight: 780g
384 pages