Officials seize 27k artifacts looted by a single French treasure hunter

61–62 of 62 posts

Re: Officials seize 27k artifacts looted by a single French treasure hunter

#61

Post by justinclift » Thu, Dec 24, 2020, 6:43 AM UTC

flagrant wrote: post #50

yostrovs wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You imply that an individual is not part of humanity so that only museums, usually governed by the state, create the illusion of humanity. I disagree. The Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution destroyed nearly the entirety of Chinese historical objects. What was saved by unofficial groups or individuals became Chinese history. I'm just glad the Jacobins are not totally in charge in France, as they would t…

What is the functional difference between destroying an artifact and keeping an artifact in a private collection where nobody can see it, from the point of view of humanity?

Hmmm, well at least a single member of "humanity" in this case knows about it. Still, not exactly fantastic.

That being said, at least with the "private collection" thing it has a chance to be donated to a public institution at a future point. eg when the collector passes away

Destroyed objects clearly don't have that option.

Re: Officials seize 27k artifacts looted by a single French treasure hunter

#62

Post by Aeolun » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 8:20 AM UTC

flagrant wrote: post #33

jansan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes a lot of sense. These artefacts usually disappear in a museum's basement and nobody actually gives a shit, but officials act as if they have great value. If the museums actually have to shill out some money, it becomes quite clear which artefacts actually do have value and which don't.

This is honestly an abhorrent way to think about archaeological finds. You do not have to ascribe a monetary value to everything you see and our history should not be bought and sold as a commodity.

> our history should not be bought and sold as a commodity

The thousands, maybe millions of old coins that we find from previous eras are absolutely a commodity, and it doesn’t detract from our heritage in the slightest.

The largest set of coins I’ve seen was in the british museum and that was already too much. I think they have one of every variety of coin and it just makes my head spin.

Once they have one of each (add another 10 for other musea across the country) the remaining thousands can remain in private hands.

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