tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post8100710970868262059..comments2024-03-27T04:46:33.198-07:00Comments on Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: London's BurningPaul Barfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-64802012696590543622011-08-11T12:46:28.276-07:002011-08-11T12:46:28.276-07:00Absolutely right and I posted this to show just ho...Absolutely right and I posted this to show just how easily these ("can't happen here") things CAN happen. <br /><br />I wonder just how easily fifty hoodies with hammers could be stopped if instead of trashing Sainsbury's they ran in the front doors of the BM and ran towards the back, spreading out as they went, smashing cases and objects encountered. How far would they get, and - no matter how quick the response - just what senseless damage could they do before they were caught? I shudder to think. <br /><br />Of course the point is these situations should not be "beyond the control of the museum", but the Museum should have contingency plans for just such (and any and every type of) emergency situations.Paul Barfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-76932864908496176742011-08-11T12:34:07.164-07:002011-08-11T12:34:07.164-07:00It's interesting to read about the artifacts t...It's interesting to read about the artifacts that were lost in WWII in Europe, many of which were not at all published and are now only known through fairly sketchy curators' notes. <br />Both the British Museum and the Royal Scottish Museum lost a significant amount of Egyptian material. Of course, Dresden museums suffered heavy losses, too. The curators tried to save a lot of what they thought were the "more important" objects, but it's incredibly frustrating to run across an item in the literature described as destroyed in WWII. (Or found to be so damaged that the item was disposed of, which happened in the case of a few items from the Royal Scottish Museum) <br />As for European heritage, the amount of THAT lost during WWII is truly staggering. Former colonial museums and collectors really have no standing to criticize Egypt for objects lost due to political turmoil* and ought to concern themselves with documenting the stuff they have so that we will at least have a record of objects lost next time there is a political catastrophe out of the control of the museum that threatens the museum.<br />*This does not include objects "lost" in storerooms or due to incompetence or political games.Scrabcakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15190200275035986981noreply@blogger.com