Roundtable: The Asian Antiquities Trade and the Academy

Organizer and Chair: Magnus Fiskesjo, Cornell University

Discussant: Cynthia Ho, Independent Scholar; Anne P. Underhill, Field Museum of Natural History; Patty Gerstenblith, DePaul University, College of Law; Emily Sano, The Asian Art Museum

As public and media attention intensifies concerning the realities of the trade in antiquities, which today often include objects from newly looted cultural heritage sites in Asia, the ethics of scholars' positions regarding the trade and regarding such looted artifacts have increasingly come into focus as a pressing issue of the day. The ethical issues and politics involved in scholars' positions towards the collections of uncertain or even questionable origins that are already present in Western museum collections have also engendered intense exchanges in the community of scholars, collectors, dealers, and museums, as well as among legal specialists and politicians. Many have decried the ongoing irrevocable destruction of numerous objects and historical sites across Asia that is the condition of fresh export of many items to Western markets, and China's government recently made a historic request to the US for restrictions on this import trade, still pending after recent hearings in Washington DC. This roundtable, gathering six scholars and museum officials who have been engaged in these discussions from different perspectives, will begin by brief initial statements and then conduct an in-depth discussion. The main concern will be the complex, intensifying global developments under way, their impact on intercultural exchanges and understanding, and the resulting urgent moral issues that they place before the academic Asian studies community.