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Antiquities and Museum Acquisitions: Penn Museum Leading the Way

  • 19 Mar 2013
  • 12:30 PM
  • Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Abstract: In 1970, the Penn Museum stopped acquiring antiquities that had been looted from their archaeological context and illegally exported from their country of origin. The Pennsylvania Declaration, signed in April of 1970, made this museum a leader in the fight to stop the destruction of the world’s ancient heritage. Richard Leventhal will present the context for this important decision, followed by Brian Rose, who will discuss the case of the Troy Gold and the Penn Museum.

Speaker Bios: Dr. Leventhal is a Professor in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology and Curator in the American Section of the Penn Museum. He is also the former Director of the Penn Museum, President and CEO of the School of American Research in Santa Fe, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, and Director of the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies at SUNY-Albany. He has done extensive archaeological field research in Belize, Mexico, and other parts of Central America for over thirty years, which has resulted in several monographs and books about the ancient Maya. Dr. Leventhal lectures and writes extensively on the preservation of cultural properties and cultural sites, on the need to prevent the looting of global heritage resources, and on the acquisition policies of museums.

C. Brian Rose (B.A. Haverford College; M. A., Ph.D. Columbia University) is James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology and Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section of the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Since 1988 he has been Head of Post-Bronze Age excavations at Troy, and is English language editor of Studia Troica, the annual journal of the Troy excavations. His new survey project in the Granicus River Valley focuses on recording and mapping the Graeco-Persian tombs that dominate the area. His research has also concentrated on the political and artistic relationship between Rome and the provinces (Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio-Claudian Period, Cambridge University Press, 1997). He is Vice President of the American Research Institute in Turkey and a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome.

For more information, email Sasha Renninger <sashafr@sas.upenn.edu>.
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