And the number of times I have gone into a temple in India, in southern India particularly, and it’s empty. India, Thailand, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Pakistan - for that area of the world, these antiquities are idols. We returned a piece to the Palestinian Authority. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Iran. But we have yet to have a country who hasn’t just been over-the-top appreciative and extraordinarily gracious. So how does Bogdanos manage that?īOGDANOS: Every country treats these differently. But if it’s illegal, then it should go back to the country of origin.īut how does that happen? If a museum or a private collector on Fifth Avenue has a 3,000-year-old treasure that is found to have been looted or otherwise stolen - the country of origin may not even exist anymore. We met him in our previous episode.īOGDANOS: We do not, under any circumstances, want to denude New York of its cultural treasures. Matthew Bogdanos is a former Marine colonel who now runs the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. But giving it back? That’s the hard part.ĭavid FRUM: If the job is to purify yourself by getting rid of the art, yeah, put it in a pit, melt it. It turns out that stealing art can be relatively easy. SAVOY: Most important pieces went directly to the British Museum.ĭan HICKS: They even took the bolts from the doors. Victor EHIKHAMENOR : The disruption of the attack on the kingdom cannot be overemphasized. Today on Freakonomics Radio: We will explore one dramatic case that isn’t settled yet. Lonnie BUNCH : Even though technically we legally acquired these, the origins of the acquisition was illegal, so therefore everything else was tainted as well. Jim MARRONE: Museums are now returning dozens of objects every single year.īénédicte SAVOY: It’s like Olympic Games for restitution. Matthew BOGDANOS: Guess what? My kids know it’s looted. Victoria REED: For a long time, the entire art world didn’t ask questions.Īndrea BAYER: The Met got fooled by not probing deeply enough into the purported history that was given to us. Last episode, we began with a simple question: how do the artworks and artifacts that you see in a museum wind up in a museum?
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