Research Questions
What happens when a museum finds artworks or artifacts in their collection that may have been a result of theft or looting? What is the duty of the museum to report the objects and to whom? Who is to be held accountable for the museum acquiring and housing the questionable objects, especially if a length of time has passed and changes in staff have occurred – the current curator, the former curator, the director, the collections manager, the board members, the donor, and in the case of an academic museum, the university? Who could possibly be criminally charged and how could those implications change the role and function of the museum and its collections in society?
History of the Project
This project developed from the University of Wyoming and the UW in Scotland Program. In summer 2017, the university supported Professor McCracken-Flesher’s vision to bring a cohort of professors from multiple departments to one location in Scotland. The aspiration was that, with time, the professors would naturally pair off and find commonality across their individual research interests. Darrell Jackson and Nicole Crawford were among that cohort. His experience as a prosecutor and her experience leading a private gallery as well as a university museum led to disagreements about the legality, morality, and social responsibility owed by museums, collectors, and galleries, as well as potential punishments society could choose to impose. As smaller audiences overheard their continued arguments, interest grew. Soon, larger groups and entities began requesting presentations and workshops on the themes born of these arguments. In order to responsibly present, Jackson and Crawford found their arguments becoming enhanced by intense levels of research about the domestic and international criminal laws that supposedly guided museums, collectors, and galleries.
Background
With 28 years of legal experience and 22 years of museum, gallery and art world experience, the Stealing Culture Project was created to critically and analytically inform museums, collectors and individuals about the criminal and cultural implications of their actions.
“Art crime has as yet received very little scholarly attention, in spite of the legal fact that it infects a multibillion-dollar legitimate art industry, with illegal profits running to an astounding $6 billion per annum by conservative estimates”
Noah Charney | 2009
About the Project
Jackson and Crawford anticipate that the outcomes of this research will allow them to advise museums, collectors, auction houses, and institutions, like universities, on the moral, ethical, and legal processes of dealing with objects that may have problematic or incomplete provenance. Dissemination of these outcomes will occur through academic and general public talks, presentations, university courses, and various law and museum studies publications. Their work was best captured by the current President of the International Council of Museums – University Museums and Collection:
“Our curators, conservators and educators were greatly impressed by the breath of expertise and knowledge you demonstrated during your ‘Stealing Culture’ seminar at the Museum last July (2019) and we would like to work more closely with you. Our general aim is to use the Museum collections as a point of departure to examine specific issues related to teaching and research collections in universities in the broader context of contemporary debates about the decolonization of European museums… This cannot be done without physical access to collections, archives and their communities of origin…” – Dr. Marta C. Lourenço, Director, National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon