Sunday April 22 – June 3, 2007
The Officers’ Club, Fort Totten Park, 208 Totten Avenue
Bayside, New York
If you value the places and objects that connect us to the past—you should support preservation.
Archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, and antiquities are just a few of the valuable cultural resources that would be lost forever without the efforts of preservation minded organizations and individuals.
This series of lectures, presented in partnership with Bayside Historical Society offers topics designed to promote awareness of current issues in cultural resource preservation.
Preservation is not just a good idea, it is imperative.
Archaeologists rely on context to build our understanding of past cultures and the lives of people who inhabited them. Today, context is a term often used and misused in the sometimes contentious discussions surrounding the protection of cultural heritage worldwide. Whether we are talking about the looting of sites, the affects of urbanization or religious and secular conflict on monuments, collecting or the rights of indigenous peoples, context is often at the heart of our discussions. Dr. Paula Lazrus will investigate the meaning and place of Context for archaeology and how the loss of it affects all the myriad ways we understand and preserve the past.
While antiquities are as old as civilizations, a body of law concerning antiquities emerged relatively late, primarily in the last century. By referencing legal constructs we attempt to address relevant issues in cultural property legislation, such as: How may we distinguish the term “cultural heritage” from “cultural property?” Dr. Lucille Roussin will discuss how the field of law is being defined and refined as more and more legal issues as to the trade in objects of cultural heritage arise.
“Catching the Smugglers” with Tim Carey
Sunday June 3, 2007 3 pm
Tim Carey details the 18 month-long investigation by the Department of Homeland Security which began with the seizure of a cache of illicit Gandharan artifacts at Newark Port of Entry in September 2005 and culminated in their return to the Government of Pakistan in February of 2007.
Comparisons between looted artifacts and Gandharan artifacts which have recently appeared at auction demonstrate what motivates smugglers to import illicit antiquities into the US. Mr. Carey offers a few simple “do’s” and “dont’s” to help collectors distinguish legitimate ancient art available for sale from artifacts that may be too hot to handle.