by Summer Kelley-Bell, ARCA Intern
The last weeks have been endlessly busy and massively interesting. Classes settled back into a normal routine after the close of ARCA’s Art Crime conference and we have all refocused ourselves to learning. Rounding out the month of June and ushering in a cooler than usual July, our class time has been split between two professors each teaching two separate, but overlapping courses. The first half of each week was dedicated to Judge Arthur Tompkins’ “Art Crime in War” course while the second half focused on Derek Fincham’s “Art and Heritage Law.”
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| 2013 Course photo with Judge Arthur Tompkins |
Arthur Tompkins, a sitting judge for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, started off each week for us. His course took us from classical antiquity and up through the present day emphasizing the different ways that the world's art has suffered during times of armed conflict. His classes looked at the destruction of the library at Nineveh and how it grew directly out of conflict with the Babylonians and moved all the way through today's current armed conflicts highlighting the impact of looting and the destruction of the Timbuktu manuscripts from Mali.
Each day’s classes brought us interesting case studies and underscored the laws that have successfully (and not so successfully) been applied over the years to try and combat the destruction of cultural heritage. Judge Tompkins' course highlighted how art can be used as a tool by rulers to show the subjugation of those they have conquered and reminded us of the many different ways that we can use this awareness in order to protect art during war time in the future.
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| Field Class at the Necropoli della Banditaccia |
Tompkins’ course was offset nicely by that of Derek Fincham, an associate professor at South Texas College of Law, who helped us apply legal concepts touched upon in Judge Tompkins’ class to modern day world events, bettering our understanding of the evolution of cultural heritage law as it is being applied today. Dr. Fincham's course presented various case studies from differing countries in order to give us a broader view of the way that art crimes are being addressed in legal channels around the world. Throughout his course classroom and field class discussions were lively and highlighted the complex and oftentimes contentious relationships and ideological positions of many of the relevant stakeholders involved in the fields of cultural heritage.
It was a nice change of pace to have access to both professors for a full two weeks. In this way, we could take knowledge gleaned in one course and apply it nearly immediately to the next. Learning and projects aren’t the only things keeping us occupied however. Canada Day came just a few days before a pretty big American holiday this year. Not to be outdone, one of our resident Canadians brought in Canadian flag pins to celebrate the auspicious occasion. Then the interns offered up their house (which happens to have a pool) and we all took a break on Thursday to celebrate the Fourth of July. There were hotdogs and potato salad for all as we basked in a bit of sunshine and celebrated America’s birthday. Come Friday we were back to work however, with a closing class from Professor Fincham and a “hello there” to our next professor in the summer line-up.
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| Spray paint defacing tomb walls at Banditaccia |
The sixth week of classes started early Saturday morning with Dick Drent, the Corporate Security Manager at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, teaching us about the complexities of museum security. While this post only covers the first two days of his course, I can tell you that I will never be able to look at a museum the same way again. Time has been moving much too quickly for this intern.
Classes have been grand, but as we pass the half way mark of the program I know the end of this summer will be a hard goodbye. The professor’s we’ve had access to over the last few weeks have successfully distilled their knowledge into each of us, and now my brain is full up with all of the possibilities of the art world. Each day brings with it new challenges and new information and I am so excited for all the new things I have yet to learn.
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