Erin L. Thompson

@artcrimeprof.bsky.social

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Art crime prof at CUNY. Author: Smashing Statues (http://bit.ly/3DllrTb). Also: art forgery; repatriation; museum shenanigans. She/her; queer.
www.artcrimeprof.com

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Highly recommend visiting friends with extensive collections of family uniforms.

Extremely specific query time: anyone know if the São Paolo Museum of Art has a "Greek marble statue of Athena," donated in the 1940s by Assis Chateaubriand and obtained through Mario Modestini? Or suggestions on whom to ask? Thank you!

500 letters from the 1920s archive of a German antiquities dealer = transcribed. Now on to something completely different… flying to Guantanamo to report on the military commission hearings.

Does anyone know where the papers of James Loeb (of the Loeb Classical Library) ended up? I know he corresponded with the dealers Hirsch and Arndt about his collections (and that many of his artifacts ended up in Munich museums), but am striking out!

Friends - has anyone seen this kore sculpture, purchased by the National Museum of Stockholm c. 1916? Supposedly ancient Greek, but diagnosed as a forgery soon thereafter. Where is she now?

About to launch my summer travels: Aspen, London, Vermont, Guantanamo Bay, and Michigan. Let me know if you want to hang!

I am never again worrying about having too many exclamation points in my emails after reading a lot of German business correspondence from the 1920s.

Usually, helping out with repatriation cases involves archival research and lots of emails. Sometimes, though, I find myself asking a living god (off duty) to look at photos of a stolen sacred artifact…

Imagine it’s 1927. An urgent ring at the bell. It’s a telegram delivery boy! What could the message be? You affix your pince-nez, break open the seal, and read… this. #FunInTheArchive @vaseinscriptions.bsky.social

New favorite painting in the Vatican is this 11th century Last Judgement with God saying “drop it! drooooop it!” to all the animals who’ve eaten humans

Anyone have recommendations for analysis of the Vatican Ethnological Museum? It’s… quite something.

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Erin L. Thompson

It's time for another Five Year First Friday Feature from #FeedingTheElephant! Today, we revisit @artcrimeprof.bsky.social's piece on publishing with a trade press to reach a wider audience. ➡️ networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

Publishing with a Trade Press to Reach a Wider Audience | H-Netnetworks.h-net.org A Five Year First Friday Feature from

Was wondering why my campus had no visible protests… just noticed that our sole outdoor space has been closed.

I'll be talking about some of what I see as the larger purposes of researching looted cultural property - supporting living culture; finding forgeries; and mourning - on May 8 in Rome, during what promises to be an all-around great conference! Free and open to all. www.biblhertz.it/3499942/art-...

Art in Times of War and Peace: Legacies of Early Modern Loot and Repairwww.biblhertz.it A category of objects that exists entirely as a function of violence, the term “loot” describes a relationship of possession, if not more specifically of dispossession. Neither an historically nor mat...

Should I get organized enough to get on the plane, I'll be in Rome Friday-Friday!

Listen to the latest Planet Money if you want to learn about a global shift in attitudes towards the legality and ethics of collecting stolen sacred artifacts... and also if for some reason you want to learn more about what I eat for breakfast (🥯) www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1...

The case of the stolen masks : Planet Moneywww.npr.org About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used had been broken into. The temple had been ransacked. And someone had stolen two holy Bhairav masks....

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Erin L. Thompson

‘“Why are you crying, habibi?’”Mansoor Adayfi asked the elephant. He had got into the habit of talking to animals at Guantánamo Bay.’ @artcrimeprof.bsky.social writes from an exhibition of Guantanamo detainees’ art in Brussels: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ap...

Erin L. Thompson | In Brusselswww.lrb.co.uk ‘Why are you crying, habibi?’ Mansoor Adayfi asked the elephant. He had got into the habit of talking to animals at...

I wrote about hanging out at a museum of artifacts looted from Congo with my friend Mansoor, the way the colonial theft of culture relates to the taking of men to Guantánamo… and also things you don’t want to know about cheese. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ap...

Erin L. Thompson | In Brusselswww.lrb.co.uk ‘Why are you crying, habibi?’ Mansoor Adayfi asked the elephant. He had got into the habit of talking to animals at...

The masks returned to Nepal last December are back in the news! www.npr.org/2024/04/18/1...

Amateur art detectives used modern tools and the law to return stolen artifactswww.npr.org Thirty years ago, two copper gilded Bhairav masks were stolen from a temple in Nepal. The mask's owners thought they were gone for good – but they ended up in two American museums.

I'm going to be in Austin this Friday-Tuesday to speak at an awesome symposium about fake cultural property and also just hang out - any suggestions for the latter, let me know!

Considering going back in time to yell at people whose letters and notes I’m now reading in archives that there were at least 10 art dealers with the same last name active in Rome in this period so would they please at least use a gd first initial in addition to just “Jandolo”?!!

When I follow up on that great research idea

Rescued baby hedgehog turns out to be hat bobblewww.bbc.com A wildlife rescue was handed the ornamental tuft by a well-intentioned rescuer.

I'll be in Brussels April 1-4 - anyone want to hang?

On April 2, I have the privilege of speaking about #ArtFromGuantanamo at the European Parliament at the opening of a temporary exhibition: left.eu/events/guant...

Guantánamo: art in captivityleft.eu Exhibition with the artwork of the Guantanamo Detainees

Signage doesn’t always fix the problem, example #512: a giant painting in Montreal’s cathedral that suggests a Jesuit missionary was murdered with tiny sign far above viewers’ heads whispering “actually he probably just drowned”

Here to report that the Met’s Harlem Renaissance show is indeed as fantastic as everyone else reports

I may or may not have sighed heavily and said "it's always tits out when you're dying in 19th century art" while teaching yesterday.

Sword Twitter (there must be a sword Twitter, right?): would one ever have cause to hold one's sword like this? (@swordsjew.bsky.social I am excited to finally find an intersection!)

Want to adjunct for Af-Am Art, Af-Am Women in Art, Art of Subsaharan Africa, and/or Haitian Art at John Jay College in Manhattan (online or in-person)? Let me know!

Cipher fans - I've trying to read the ciphered telegrams sent in the 1910s by John Marshall (here he is with his pet crow) to the Metropolitan Museum, for whom he was purchasing antiquities. I posted the details here: www.reddit.com/r/ciphers/co...