from the LA Times CULTURE MONSTER
Is Portland’s Hindu statue a looted antiquity?
10:00 AM, January 4, 2009
The often abstract debate over how strict museums should be about shunning ancient artworks of questionable origins — lest they wind up owning pieces that have been looted and illegally smuggled — now wears the familiar face of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesha.
A 1,000-year-old stone stele of the god is scheduled to be unveiled at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon on Valentine’s Day. Having already drawn criticism from the anti-looting advocacy group SAFE –Saving Antiquities for Everyone — the Ganesha could soon be exhibit A in the back-and-forth between those who favor a hard line against collecting ancient works whose paths since before 1970 are murky, and those who think it makes more sense to give museums some leeway when hard proof is lacking.
Guidelines adopted in June by the Assn. of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) call for museums to research carefully whether an object they want left its country of origin before November 1970. That’s when the United Nations adopted rules to stem cultural looting.
But when the facts nevertheless remain hazy, the AAMD permits museums to make a judgment call on whether to acquire a piece.