Colin Renfrew on unprovenanced antiquities

Safe Corner

In less than 18 minutes, Professor Colin Renfrew covers a lot of ground and an array of issues in the 2008 video "The issue of unprovenanced antiquities" here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). It's a summary of the issues SAFE addresses, well worth viewing.

Beginning with how he came around to take a "purist position" against publishing unprovenanced material, Renfrew recalls founding the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre with Neil Brodie, the scandal at Sotheby's and Peter Watson's investigations, the UNESCO Convention, and Britain's implementation of The Dealing in Cultural Objects Offences Act in 2003.