Unquestionably yes! Whether the Benin objects or the Parthenon Marbles (we do not call them “Elgin” after their plunderer anymore). Almost weekly we see more information about the repatriation of objects.
Crystal Baller, Part 2
If Sea Freight is the Answer, What is the Question?
The logic of the argument focuses on carbon emissions where air freight vastly out-pollutes sea freight. While I fully side with the GCC’s goals and intent, sea freight hardly qualifies as clean as it emits other noxious bi-products including CO2 by fueling the tens of thousands of ocean vessels with fossil fuels.
Savings and [Distributed] Loans
![Savings and [Distributed] Loans](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b818890297114b18b5c6121/ec15f8d5-866e-4556-9dde-4494eb09b974/Distributed+Model.png)
The speculative concept involves only shipping objects one-way and thus cutting transportation in half. In other words, you leave your objects wherever you loan them and store the objects in the nearest storage facility that meets your standards. You dispense with the idea that they return to a “home” institution immediately.
Savings and [Decentralized] Loans
![Savings and [Decentralized] Loans](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b818890297114b18b5c6121/1647254062984-PX9MHSNR1WDT1IKS5O3B/Decentralized+Model.png)
Cognitive Dissonance and Traveling Collections, Part 2
Cognitive Dissonance and Traveling Collections
If we acknowledge that it is safer for an object to remain at its institution, then why do we loan it to other institutions? If we acknowledge that it is more environmentally sustainable for an object to remain at its institution, then why do we loan it to other institutions? If we acknowledge that it is cheaper not to borrow objects for exhibitions, then why do we borrow it at great expense?
Economic Eclipse
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed widespread suffering on people, labor, and budgets around the world for well over a year now. Amidst all the friction between seemingly binary choices, it has also sparked some creative fires in our art and artifact wilderness that appear to acknowledge that this extraordinary moment aligns economic incentives with sustainability practices like a summer solstice on a clear day at Stonehenge.