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Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World

Author: Sharon Waxman
Publisher: Times Books
$30.00 Cloth (414 p.)
ISBN: 9780805086539
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Reviewed by Marcia A. Lusted, Statusing

Ancient Greek marble sculptures, Egyptian obelisks, Roman sculptures, Etruscan pottery…what do they have in common? Some of the greatest treasures of these ancient civilizations are scattered all over the world, in large and small museums, far from their countries of origin and removed from their cultural setting.

In her book Loot, Sharon Waxman addresses the history and philosophy behind the looting, smuggling, and illegal trade in ancient objects and how so many of them have come to reside in museums halfway across the world from where they were originally found. The Elgin marbles, the Rosetta Stone, and the zodiac ceiling from Egypt's Denderah temple are all examples of famous artifacts that now reside in places like the British Museum and the Louvre: to name just two of the world's museums that assembled much of their vast collections from the shady dealings of the past. Many of these works were pillaged wholesale by less than scrupulous explorers, archaeologists, and scavengers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

While there are now laws in place to prevent objects from being removed from their countries of origin and sold to the highest museum bidder, Waxman explores the history and methods behind both these famous examples of looting, and the illegal antiquities trade that still takes place today. She also discusses the issue of repatriation, where several museums such as the Getty have been forced to return illegally-obtained artifacts to their original countries. There are also cases where museums such as the British Museum steadfastly refused to return artifacts such as the Elgin marbles, despite prevailing opinion.

This is a book filled with larger-than-life personalities in the museum and antiquities worlds, such as Zahi Hawass, who is conducting a one-man crusade to have some of Egypt's greatest treasures returned to her. There are others on the opposite side of the debate, as well as those, such as former Getty curator Marion True, who have recently been accused of continuing to trade in illegally acquired antiquities.

Waxman writes in an accessible style and has conducted many one-on-one interviews with the people in the book, giving it a fresh and readable style. It changes the reader's whole perspective on some of the world's most famous pieces of art, and even the larger issue of just what the role of the modern museum should be. It is definitely a timely and thought-provoking book.