CPRI Seminars and Projects

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There have been some changes on the Cultural Property Research Institute's "Projects" page. Can you spot what it is? Yes, the announcements of the projects which they were going to do have all disappeared.  

So it would seem they've given up the idea for the moment of:

Developing different models for a registry that can be applied to privately-owned objects.("A draft report will be published on the CPRI website by the end of 2009")

Exploring ways to harmonize US laws and regulations that apply to transfer and ownership of antiquities. ("CPRI will gather, cite, and republish these materials on the CPRI website and provide summaries and analyses useful to museums, educational institutions and the general public" - no date cited: where are these?).

Exploring the effect of source country policies on damage to archaeological sites and objects.("This will be an ongoing research project with milestones and publication outcomes to be determined before the end of 2009" - no such definitions appear to have been created).

But they say "This has been a busy year for CPRI's educational projects (sic). In 2012, CPRI members presented at the following major public programs". Well, there are three of them in the course of a whole year, obviously their definition of "busy" and "educational", or notions of what a "research institute" should be doing to earn the name, differ fundamentally from those of the rest of us. The meetings CPRI members took part in were:

Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University "Cultural Heritage and African Art: Negotiating the Rise of Ethical and Legal Collecting Concerns." January 21, 2012 [Ruth K. Franklin Symposium on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas] (Kate Fitz Gibbon).

The National Press Club January 24, 2012  discussing the book "Chasing Aphrodite"  (Arthur Houghton)

The Asia Society in New York. "The Future of the Past - Collecting Ancient Art in the 21st Century" March 18, 2012 at (Arthur Houghton and Kate Fitz Gibbon).

So participation at two meetings in January and one more in the first half of March. Since then, nothing.
Their current mission statement reads:

CPRI researches legal, administrative, political and ethical issues concerning acquisition, display, conservation and publication of cultural artifacts by museums and private individuals in the United States. We support preservation and accessibility for art and artifacts and the protection of archaeological sites everywhere. Our goals are to:

share information on cultural policy issues through our website,
outreach to the museum community
analyses of laws and international agreements,
encourage cooperation between U.S. and foreign institutions and governments to preserve cultural heritage for future generations,
protect cultural sites of all types from damage or destruction by conflict, looting, development or neglect.

Well, we see the "website", after four years of activity it seems rather short on fulfilment of most of the other "goals", even after discarding the ones it set out to achieve four years ago. In fact, on the website, the same pieces of information are presented in several different sections, giving the impression that in fact very little 'research' is actually going on. "The Institute gratefully receives financial support from individuals, foundations and organizations.  " Yeah, I bet they do.

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