Television and Antiquities

This week I took a different approach, and wanted to explore antiquities as shown on popular television shows. If you were to flip through the channels on your T.V, I bet you would see many shows about people uncovering antiquities, and buying, selling or appraising them. Two popular shows that use this premise are “American Pickers”, and “Pawn Stars.” They each may have different formats, but they all deal with handling rather old objects.

 “American Pickers”, for example, is shown on the History Channel, involves two men out on the search for special antiques right in the backyard of America. Their intro reads;

“I'm Mike Wolfe. And I'm Frank Fritz. And we're pickers. We travel the back roads of America looking for rusty gold. We're looking for amazing things buried in people's garages and barns. What most people see as junk, we see as dollar signs. We'll buy "anything" we think we can make a buck on. Each item we pick has a history all its own and the people we meet? Well, they're a breed all their own. We make a living telling the history of America...one piece at a time”

Wolfe and Fritz barter the items off the owners, who are most of the time hesitant, and then sell them at auction or by other means at a higher price. Wolfe and Fritz are often entertaining and likeable guys. When I watch the show, however, I often feel bad at the fact that the usually dupe the owners of the “antiquity” to buy the items at a lower price. Even after they do that, they sell the items so they can make money off of them. Even though they say they buy junk, most of the items they find are worth quite a few dollars. Once they sell the items, who knows what happens to them.

                History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” is about a 24-hour family owned pawn shop in Las Vegas. The business is operated by the often grumpy Richard "Old Man" Harrison, and his son Rick Harrison. They opened the shop in 1988. The business is always run by Rick’s son, Corey, and his clumsy friend Austin "Chumlee" Russell. They show has attracted the network’s most viewers, becoming a great success.  The pawn shop comes into contact with many interesting antiquities, such as Civil War paraphernalia or old letters from presidents. Part of the show is to determine if the object is authentic, and if it is, the owner is given the option to with pawn or sell it. The price offered to the owner is often much lower than what the appraiser says it is worth. Of course, the “Pawn Stars” buy it at a lower price to make a profit of it. The item than goes to sale at the shop, or is kept by the “Pawn Stars”, or sold elsewhere.  While I watch this show, I always wonder how the owners get some of these objects. Many times, they say it was passed down through their family, but why would they want to sell it knowing it could end up anywhere?

                These shows prove that the antiquities market is a sticky market. The objects are often bartered as if it was a gambling game. These objects are than sold or auctioned as if they were trading cards, too. One could easily see how illusive the market is. You can buy an item for $50, than sell it at auction, and make $500, even if it is not worth that much. One could say “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, but are these objects really trash?  If everything is worth something, than nothing is really trash, besides trash itself. Also, what if the owner wants their object back if it was stolen from them? This then leads to a case of repatriation too. It goes to show that museums are not the only places that feel the heat of the antiquities market. Local pawn shops and auction houses can be home of the shady hand of the black market. The creepy thing is, is that things like that are broadcasted on T.V for your enjoyment.  
           Even though the points I stated above may exist, "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" are not as evil as I may have described. My Professor brought up a good point that these shows do save objects from rotting away in a shed or barn. Many times, they restore the objects and give them a second life, so to speak. These shows also raise the public's awareness to antiquities, and perhaps could inspire people to respect antiquities more.  In the end, both shows are highly entertaining and endearing, and have a lot of value educationally as well. 

Kiera Lanni

The Reacquiring of Ancient Cambodian Artifacts and the Ethics behind it

The Reacquiring of Ancient Cambodian Artifacts and the Ethics behind it

 

     More often than not, when you go about buying something off eBay things can get kind of sketchy, however in this case the findings were a little more than sketchy. Southeast Asian archeologist Damien Huffer was sent a catalog in 2010 of ancient Cambodian artifacts, each priced at a few thousand dollars and some still containing human remains. The fact that these artifacts appeared to be just plucked off of skeletons makes it obvious that they were looted. Huffer, being a man of science, proceeded to break the news on his blog on what he had found. From here he was then contacted by members of the Cultural Property division of the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts. Together, they brought down the seller of the artifacts. They were then sent back to Cambodia where Huffer and his colleagues viewed the ceremony.

     Though the pieces are all back and comfortable in their native land, one can not go without asking themselves were these pieces looted in vain of their true owners, the ancient Cambodians? These artifacts were taken off of ancient corpses making them pieces of a bigger puzzle so to speak. The rest of the remains these belong to will never be found, making it a priceless loss. 

     I personally believe that it is very sad and even shocking that people would go to the extent to essentially grave rob an entire ancient culture all for the sake of money. Tell me your opinion on this in the comments section.

-Ben Hall

http://www.savingantiquities.org/bringing-them-home-the-repatriation-of-priceless-human-remains-and-artifacts-to-cambodia/ 

Iraqi-Jewish Heritage

Conflicts between Iraq and Israel before and during World War II did not only affect the Jewish people who lived in Israel, but also effected Iraqi citizens who were Jewish. Iraq’s Anti-Semitic Legislation, created in 1933, gave the Jewish citizens a very tight leash during the beginning of the war and started to persecute them due to the conflicts between them and Israel. During the 1950’s, Iraqi secret police were ordered to raid homes in the Jewish communities, mostly in Baghdad, to search for any evidence of Zionist sentiments, which were artifacts supporting the development of Israel. In this specific case, we will look at personal items found in one home which had very little value,  but is now is the topic of Iraq’s ministry of Culture and Antiquities .

The items that are being so widely discussed consists of early Torah’s, children’s learning material, family photos and a few other personal belongings. The Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Antiquities had sent them to the United States to take care of them. They had made an agreement in 2003 that America would restore the artifacts and return them in 2005. The problem is that it is now 2012 and the artifacts are not back in the hands of Iraq. Liwaa Saisim, Iraqi Tourism and Archeology Minister has even gone as far as not letting archeological explorations continue by the United States in Iraq until the artifacts are back in Iraq.

So the question here is, why hasn’t the United States given back these pieces of Iraqi history? And another big question is why is Iraq so interested in repatriating these objects? The United States has been doing research on these items that will ultimately cost up to six million dollars, and they want to do the most that they can and complete their studies, although the U.S. acknowledges that Iraq has the right to make their claims. As for Iraq, they want the items back not for monetary value, but for the sake of informing their citizens. Saad Eskander, the director of the Iraq National Library of Archives, makes a great point when he says, “Iraqis must know that we are a diverse people, with different traditions, different religions, and we need to accept this diversity…To show it to our people that Baghdad was always multi-ethnic.”

Ultimately, I feel that that Iraq should have the artifacts back. Not only because there are legal documents that state the claim of the artifacts, but also for the sake of Iraqi people today. Saad Eskander’s statement applies to the way of living in Iraq today, because history still effects the present day and Iraqi people need to see that diversity was okay in their past and should be okay in their present day lives. It is possible to co-exist, but the public needs proof that it has happened, it can happen, and it will happen.

So you all know my stance on the issue, now what do you all think; Who do these artifacts belong to? Please respond in the comment box bellow!

-Rachel Armus

http://www.savingantiquities.org/contested-ownership-of-iraqi-jewish-heritage-causes-international-debate/