Metropolitan Museum of Art under scrutiny for possessing trafficked antiquities

Photo courtesy of Hugo Schneider via Creative Commons.
Pictured above, the Metropolitan Museum of Art entrance in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is repatriating 27 works of art — valued at over $13 million — back to Rome, Greece and Egypt.

Lily Hoffman Strickler ’23

Staff Writer

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has found itself in the international spotlight following the seizure of 27 works of art from its collections by investigators. Altogether, the pieces taken — which are reported to have been looted from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt — are valued at over $13 million. 

The seizure was conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Antiquities Trafficking Unit. The group — which includes art experts, criminal investigators and prosecutors — tackles issues relating to the “elite” side of the New York art scene and the repatriation of looted artwork, according to The Atlantic. The methods by which The Met collects their art have been scrutinized by investigators over the past couple of decades, with many of their policies and procedures also under examination. The reclaimed art, which includes pieces such as the marble head of Greek goddess Athena and a bronze statuette depicting the Roman god Jupiter, will be returned to their places of origin in a repatriation ceremony, Smithsonian Magazine reported. 

This repossession has prompted discussion surrounding problems in the art acquisition processes used by museums and the increasing amount of art discovered to have been sold or obtained under illegal and unethical pretenses. According to The Atlantic, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has impounded over 3,600 pieces of art over the past decade, culminating at around $200 million worth of art obtained through organized trafficking. 

When it comes to what the process of repatriation of art is like once it is in the possession of a museum — collector or auction house — Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture and NAGPRA Coordinator at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Aaron Miller is the one to ask. “Any institution that has taken federal funds is required to assess their collection, do an inventory and reach out to communities that are actually represented in the collection,” says Miller. Most of the decision-making power, he continued, resides on the side of the museum — not the government or state. 

This is not the first time the Metropolitan Museum of Art has come under scrutiny for unethical art acquisition. In 2019, the museum was under review and returned a looted coffin from Egypt, in 2021 returned two Nigerian artifacts and in August 2022 returned looted art from Nepal. It is necessary that establishments conduct the necessary review and research before they come into possession of art — especially when lack of money and resources do not pose an issue. “The numbers are rapidly adding up,” Tess Davis, the executive director of the Antiquities Coalition said in an interview with The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists regarding the seizures at the Met. “In what other context could you make headlines so often for holding stolen property and not face any consequences?” 

Miller does not believe this surge of investigations and seizures poses a threat to the museum industry. “It’s an interesting moment for institutions that have monumental works that they’re very much attached to, because these are often things that those source communities are also attached to getting back.”

The Antiquities Trafficking Unit has repeatedly investigated The Met closely regarding art trafficking, with the recent seizure creating widespread publicity when articles from The New York Times and NPR made their way to the Google trending page. Given recent movements for stolen art to be returned to its rightful owners — especially art from colonized countries — investigations like these ensure that pressure is building upon art collectors. This pressure requires collectors to rethink the fundamentals of buying art, and consider how it might be done so that not only the objects are protected, but the culture and history that created them.

Junior Art Studio exhibit explores inner growth and spatial importance

By Lily Hoffman Strickler ’23

Staff Writer

Photo by Jenny Yu ‘24

On March 25, 10 pieces of art created by the Spring 2022 Junior Art Studio class adorned the second floor gallery of Blanchard Hall. The show, titled “Evoking Reality: Space and Self,” ran until April 2 and included artwork featuring a wide variety of mediums, ranging from 3D sculptures to digital and acrylic paintings. 

According to Associate Professor of Art and Chair of Art Studio Ligia Bouton, the pieces featured in the exhibition took three weeks for the artists to complete, with some of the pieces being a mashup of previously completed art projects from earlier in the semester. The exhibition was a walkthrough of the significant aspects of life and creativity for each artist, covering subjects such as the sexualization of women of color, the impact of human life on certain communities and even an ode to a deceased horse. Each piece included a wide range of differing artistic mediums, creating an air of vibrancy and inventiveness that expressed the passion that went into creating each piece of art.

Regarding the process that went into creating the artwork, Bouton explained, “There was no prompt; students were encouraged to follow their own creative trajectories.” 

This encouragement of creative freedom was clearly reflected in the art. Each piece served as an in-depth look into the lives, morals and mindsets of the Junior Art Studio artists. 

The artwork by Sarah Miller-Bartley ’24, titled “Strawberry Milk,” featured pink-painted plastic cows which were hung loosely in the folds of an equally pink canvas, attached by the canvas’ own threads. As written in Miller-Bartley’s artist statement, it is through this inclusion of both artistic material and mass-produced objects that they explore the hierarchy of art materials, bringing into question the validity of such classification in artistic environments. 

Miller-Bartley reflected on what it meant to display artwork at an in-person exhibition after such a long time of not being able to do so because of COVID-19. “It was really exciting to see everyone’s work together, especially after a long period of remote work,” Miller-Bartley said. “It’s satisfying to display a piece in an intentional and more final way, for viewing beyond the classroom.” 

For Laura Hinojosa ’23, another Junior Art Studio student, the process of developing her artwork and interest in pop culture began during the pandemic, when she returned home to Lima, Peru. 

“Due to the limited ability to leave my apartment building, I used media to entertain myself: watching movies, reading comic books, scrolling through Instagram/Tiktok/Twitter,” Hinojosa recalled.

This increase in Hinojosa’s social media usage led her to begin the process of creating her piece “Olympus,” a mixed digital art piece featuring American singer Doja Cat. According to Hinojosa, the piece is reflective of the stereotyping of women of color in media, and how they have been reclaiming their sexuality over time. 

“I became curious once more about media consumption and pop culture when I realized I was engaging with it a lot less,” Hinojosa said.“And so, I began to explore the Pop Art movement — Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara and Andy Warhol.” This rediscovery of pop culture and media led Hinjosa to create an art piece reflective of this thought process. 

“Evolving Reality: Space and Self” served as a space for artists to reflect on themselves as individuals through their artwork in a time where much of the outside world and our own inner selves are changing or have changed drastically. It was a personal look into an aspect of life each artist finds significance in, whether it be outward or inward, widely discussed or intimately individualized, all through a largely vibrant and liberally creative atmosphere.