• by IPS Correspondents (paris)
• Monday, November 14, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PARIS, Nov 14 (IPS) - The looting of cultural treasures from African museums and archaeological sites for subsequent sale in Europe and North America is causing "entire civilizations" in Africa to be lost to memory, curators and historians say.

"If archaeological sites are destroyed, it destroys memory," said Elisabeth des Portes of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). "Objects taken out of context no longer speak. It is particularly serious in Africa where written and oral tradition only takes us back to the 11th century."

ICOM and the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) have jointly launched a campaign to fight pillage by raising awareness among African museum professionals and customs officials, and by changing attitudes in industrialised countries where such objects sell at high profit.

The programme includes training for curators, police and customs agents in Africa, inventories of the continent's museums, and a book called "One Hundred Missing Objects" that details stolen items.

The book, distributed to museums, police and the press, cites legislation in many African countries intended to protect their heritage but ineffective against international networks that market African art, des Portes said.

Photographs and drawings identify missing objects from Algeria to Zambia with the hope that collectors, auctioneers or customs agents will spot them and work for their return. The text also explains how such theft erases history and it outlines ICOM's strong ethical code for acquisitions.

The first volume of "One Hundred Missing Objects" concerning Angkor, Cambodia, was released a year ago and has already brought results. Four objects in it have been identified in private or museum collections. One has been returned.

Des Portes said there is little motivation for art vendors and auctioneers in industrialised countries to curtail lucrative sales. However, a campaign that made such collecting socially and politically unacceptable could change practices.

"We make the comparison with ivory," she said. "Popular opinion has turned against it, certainly in the United States. What worked for that can work for art."

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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