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“Since this object apparently has no provenance prior to the 1980s, we can’t know anything about the context in which it was removed from its country of origin.”
Our no-provenance provenance Qur& #39;an gets the attention of @TheArtNewspaper in this article. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/quran-sells-for-record-price">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/qura...
Our no-provenance provenance Qur& #39;an gets the attention of @TheArtNewspaper in this article. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/quran-sells-for-record-price">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/qura...
@Yael_Rice and I wrote several threads about this Qur& #39;an before its sale, starting with Yael& #39;s brilliantly biting bit of meme-ified satire https://twitter.com/Yael_Rice/status/1273352899549167619?s=20">https://twitter.com/Yael_Rice...
I laid out the overall problem with the sale of objects that lack transparent provenance information like this Qur& #39;an here: https://twitter.com/stephenniem/status/1275238292884197377?s=20">https://twitter.com/stephenni...
In this thread, @Yael_Rice takes on the question of why manuscripts in particular need complete provenance information: https://twitter.com/Yael_Rice/status/1277671619637530629">https://twitter.com/Yael_Rice...
And here, I argued that though legal statutes allow the sale of such manuscripts, we should be asking questions about the ethics of such sales. Transparency benefits collectors, dealers, and museums - which is why many museums have adopted UNESCO 1970. https://twitter.com/stephenniem/status/1277052203413495809">https://twitter.com/stephenni...
This is not the first time I& #39;ve criticized Christie& #39;s for the sale of manuscripts with questionable provenance - there& #39;s a consistent pattern at Christie& #39;s of disregarding a growing international ethical consensus on this issue. https://twitter.com/stephenniem/status/986983042102251520">https://twitter.com/stephenni...
And just last year, as @TheArtNewspaper article notes, Christie& #39;s sold dispersed pages from another Persian manuscript - see this critique from Christiane Gruber https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/gruber-figure-frieze-folio-islamic-art-christies">https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-...
@Yael_Rice and I have an an op-ed on the sale of this 15th c. Qur& #39;an - hoping @josephharker will pick it up. We need dealers, collectors, and auction houses to adopt more complete provenance standards for all antiquities. They& #39;re an important bulwark against theft and looting.
Very grateful to @TheArtNewspaper for covering this story - we can& #39;t hold auction houses to account without journalists, who shine a bright light on these questionable practices.
@Yael_Rice and I will be speaking to Harvard& #39;s Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar about the sale of this Qur& #39;an next Thursday, July 16 - stay tuned for details and thank you to @MXSchwerda for the invitation!
