Wednesday, February 29, 2012

State Indirectly Funding War on Sotheby's?

During the Vietnam war era, the US Government funded a "secret war" in Cambodia. Now, is the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center indirectly funding a not so secret war against Sotheby's Auction House?

Heritage Watch, an archaeological advocacy group with a focus on Cambodia, has been at the forefront of a recent campaign against Sotheby’s. See http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-does-lack-of-provenance-indicate.html
And http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/arts/design/sothebys-caught-in-dispute-over-prized-cambodian-statue.html?pagewanted=1

At the same time, Heritage Watch has received funding from the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center:
See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/09/eca-ambassadors-fund-awards-22-million.html and http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/09/cambodian-import-restrictions-extended.html

Is State indirectly funding the archaeological lobby’s war on Sotheby’s? If so, it would be consistent with State's ongoing funding of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, which has been at the forefront of lobbying for a clamp down on collectors of ancient coins and other artifacts from Cyprus.

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