Read more
"A major, on-the-ground look at antiquities looting in Italy. More looting of ancient art takes place in Italy than in any other country. Ironically, Italy trades on the fact to demonstrate its cultural superiority over other countries. And, more than any other country, Italy takes pains to prevent looting by instituting laws, cultural policies, export taxes, and a famously effective art-crime squad that has been the inspiration of novels, movies, and tv shows. In fact, Italy is widely regarded as having invented the discipline of art policing. In 2006 the then-president of Italy declared his country to be "the world's greatest cultural power." Why do Italians believe this? Why is the patria, or "homeland," so frequently invoked in modern disputes about ancient art, particularly when it comes to matters of repatriation, export, and museum loans? Fiona Greenland's Ruling Culture addresses these questions by tracing the emergence of antiquities as a key source of power in Italy from 1815 to the present. Along the way, it investigates the activities and interactions of three main sets of actors: state officials (including Art Squad agents), archaeologists, and illicit excavators and collectors"--
About the author
Fiona Greenland is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. She was a classical archaeologist for ten years, and her current project, Insurgent Artifacts, examines how satellite images are produced and interpreted to generate knowledge about archaeological looting. Her work has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. With Fatma Müge Göçek, Greenland is coeditor of
Cultural Violence and the Destruction of Human Communities.
