In his talk, David Scott examines issues surrounding the increasing demand for the return of plundered art works. With renewed enforcement of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, how do museums collect ancient art?
Using examples from the Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Scott discusses competing arguments concerning the looted and the faked. What are different views around reclaiming art by nation-states? What are the problems created by looted art in association with the every-increasing number of fakes?