Thursday, February 18, 2016
6:30-8:30PM
Admission $10
Students $5
While recent destruction of antiquities by extremists has caused a global outcry, the world’s cultural heritage has long been under attack. Consistent looting and illegal trade of antiquities have caused irreparable damage, while providing significant revenue for the funding of terrorism.
A panel of heritage protection experts will discuss the causes and consequences of iconoclasm and archaeological looting, and consider what can be done to address these problems.
Moderator:
Fiona Rose-Greenland
Fiona Rose-Greenland is Research Director of The Past for Sale: New approaches to the study of archaeological looting, a three-year project funded by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on the intersection of antiquities, nationalism, and politics. Recent and forthcoming publications include a study of Lord Elgin’s initial failure to sell the Parthenon Marbles to the British Parliament, and an article on cultural violence in the Islamic State. Rose-Greenland holds a doctorate in classical archaeology (Oxford) and a doctorate in sociology (Michigan).
Speakers:
Lawrence Rothfield
Founding director emeritus of the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago, Professor Rothfield is the faculty lead investigator on an initiative seeking new, policy-relevant approaches to the study of archaeological looting and illicit antiquities markets. His publications on this issue include an edited volume, “Antiquities Under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection after the Iraq War,” and a book on the causes for the disastrous failure to secure Iraq’s sites and museums in the wake of the 2003 US invasion, “The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum.”
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos
A U.S. Marine, New York City homicide prosecutor, middleweight boxer, and classics scholar
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos has become known as the “raider of the lost art.” Serving in Iraq when looters plundered the Iraq National Museum, he was determined to get the treasures back, masterminding a successful collaboration of an elite group of agencies that infiltrated terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Iraq. Leading the investigation, he battled a flourishing black market that funded terrorism by selling priceless artifacts along with illegal weapons, with Western antiquities dealers complicit in the illegal trade. His best-selling book “Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine’s Passion to Recover the World’s Greatest Stolen Treasures,” recounts his stunning mission amidst the chaotic world of post-war Bagdad.
Patty Gerstenblith
Patty Gerstenblith has been Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law and founding president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation. She also serves as senior advisor to the International Arts and Cultural Property Committee of the ABA Section on International Law and served as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cultural Property (1995-2002) and as a member of the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee (2000-2003) in the U.S. Department of State. She teaches and publishes in the field of cultural heritage and law and the arts. Her most recent article, “Controlling the International Market in Antiquities: Reducing the Harm, Preserving the Past,” was published in the Chicago Journal of International Law. Gerstenblith received a BA from Bryn Mawr College, Ph.D. in Art History and Anthropology from Harvard University, and JD from Northwestern University. Upon graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Richard D. Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
This program is made possible by a generous donation from Grecian Delight Foods and the Parthenis Families.
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