Stolen, Smuggled Sold: On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures tells the
dark and compelling stories of iconic cultural objects that were
stolen, smuggled or sold, and eventually returned back to their
original owner. There are many books about museum heists, Holocaust
artwork, insider theft, trafficking in antiquities, and stolen
Native American objects. Now, there's finally a book for the
general public that covers the entire terrain. The book includes
full-color photos of the objects. Stolen, Smuggled, Sold features
seven vivid and true stories in which the reader joins the author
as she uncovers a cultural treasure and follows its
often-convoluted trail. Along the way author and reader encounter a
cast of fascinating characters from the underbelly of the cultural
world: unscrupulous grave robbers, sinister middlemen, ruthless art
dealers, venal Nazis, canny lawyers, valiant academics, unstoppable
investigative reporters, unwitting curators, and dedicated
government officials. Stories include Gustav Klimt's Portrait of
Adele Bloch Bauer 1, the typset manuscript for Pearl Buck's The
Good Earth, a ceremonial Ghost Dance short from the massacre at
Wounded Knee, the theft of 4,800 historical audio discs by a top
official at the National Archives, a missing original copy of The
Bill of Rights, the mummy of Ramses I, and an ancient treasure from
Iraq. While each story is fascinating in and of itself, together
they address one of the hottest issues in the museum world: how to
deal with the millions of items that have breaks in the chain of
ownership, suspicious ownership records, or no provenance at all.
The issue of ownership touches on professional practices,
international protocols, and national laws. It's a financial issue
since the illicit trade in antiquities and cultural items generates
as much as $4 billion to $8 billion a year.
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