Memory should be directed at the future
An interview with Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum (Maidan Museum) in Kyiv. Interviewer: Tomasz Lachowski
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An interview with Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum (Maidan Museum) in Kyiv. Interviewer: Tomasz Lachowski
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This article deals with the export of monuments and the existing combination of an object’s age and value while issuing permits. It provides an analysis of the procedure of permanent export focusing on a single license for permanent export in the Polish legal system. The authors offer a new questionnaire model (Value of Heritage Test) to support the procedure undertaken by experts of the Polish ministry of culture and national heritage involved in the process. The VOH test aims to diminish the risk of mistakes in assessing objects’ roles and meanings for national cultural heritage and reassure that the justification meets high standards.
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This article focuses on legal aspects related to the termination of museum-related activities by their organizers or founders. The aim is to consider the diversity of museums and their activities on the basis of generally applicable regulations, in particular the Act of 21 November 1996 on museums (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 720 and 1669) and the Act of 28 February 2003 on bankruptcy (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 2344, as amended). The termination of the legal entity’s activity is often related to the lack of funds for further operations (i.e., bankruptcy). Therefore, the article analyzes applicable legal provisions regarding the liquidation and bankruptcy of museums in the creative sector enterprises. The entirety of the analysis is influenced by the conclusions de lege ferenda and de lege lata, which were formulated on the basis of the author’s own observations.
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Safe haven as a remedy for affected monuments not only challenges museum directors when managing the safeguarded monuments, but also curators, who engage in monument displays. This article shows the risks and work needed to be done by both directors and regular museum workers to provide the required help for all of the received objects. This is also an opportunity for the museums to overcome financial and governance crises in cultural institutions, and to involve themselves in international heritage matters. Curators as well are responsible for properly managing the monuments, by using the instruments at their disposal to tell a story beyond the objects, involve the audience, and make them aware of the importance of protecting cultural heritage.
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This article presents selected cases of cultural heritage crime in Poland during 2018 based on statistics prepared by the local police, the National Revenue Administration and the Border Police. It is worth noting that this is a year in which new systems for the reduction of threats to cultural goods have come into force. It should be considered when assessing the security status of cultural heritage in the future. Studies on various cases of crimes against heritage carried out in 2014-2018 allow one to indicate trends in perpetrators’ activities and identify the main threats to monuments at that time. The complementary presentation of collective information on the threat of cultural heritage is essential for the perspective of research, in order to develop a strategy for its protection.
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The review of: Żaneta Gwardzińska, Egzekucja nadzoru konserwatorskiego; Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2019, ISBN 978-83-7865-782-8
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The United Kingdom (UK), like other countries, has made strong commitments to tackling the illicit trade in objects and those that were taken during the Nazi Era. Yet, admitting objects with such questionable provenance into the category of UK national treasures and attempting to keep them in the UK by seeking institutional support to make them available to the public would be at odds with these worthy policies. The main analysis in this paper is focused on the issues raised by the 2017 decision in the UK to designate as a national treasure a Meissen figure that was formerly owned by Emma Budge, whose heirs lost possession of her collection during the Nazi Era in a forced sale. Using the trope of “tarnished treasures” this paper argues that admitting objects with tainted provenance into the category of national treasures tarnishes the entire category of national treasures. Recognizing the need to retain the integrity of this special category, this paper sets out ways in which the UK export licensing process can more fully take into account provenance before admitting tainted cultural objects into the canon of national treasures, and thus avoiding tarnishing the entire category.
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Nastąpiło zerwanie zgody na dotychczasowy sposób opowiadania historii cywilizacji euroamerykańskiej. Warto dostrzec to ponad sporami o ten czy tamten pomnik (obalony lub tylko ozdobiony tęczową flagą). Sam czuję się nieswojo w obliczu tej rewolucji mentalnej, ale...
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This article describes the UK’s export control system for works of art and objects of cultural interest, with a focus on the protection of its national treasures. Beginning with an overview of the historical development of export controls in the UK, it goes on to outline the current legislative framework and the different types of export licences that are currently issued under both UK law and EU regulation. The process of assessing cultural objects as potential national treasures is set out, including descriptions of the Waverley criteria and the role of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The impact of the export controls is then examined, with reference to statistics for the year 2017-2018. Finally, there is a brief discussion on the potential impact of Brexit.
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This paper elaborates upon the German Cultural Property Protection Act, enacted in 2016. It enabled the transition from German cultural property law being scattered in many individual legal acts into one uniform and coherent Act. The paper first describes the two pillars of the new Act, the first pillar being the prevention of illicit trade in cultural property. It then continues to analyse the second pillar of the law, which is devoted to the protection of property being part of the German national cultural heritage from illegally leaving German territory. After examining the critical voices with respect to different aspects of the new Act, the article focuses on the export regime and its challenges for the art trade. In its last part, the paper describes and analyses case law under the old German cultural property regime and draws conclusions as to possible interpretations of the new Act on the ground of the already existing jurisprudence.
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Among the European missionary groups in China, only the Jesuits established themselves firmly at court, first in the late Ming and then under the succeeding Qing dynasty. The Milanese painter and lay brother Giuseppe Castiglione (Ch. Lang Shining) served three successive Manchu emperors, designing a suite of late Baroque buildings for the Yuanmingyuan, an imperial palace to the north-west of Beijing. When the palace was looted and burned during the Second Opium War, a set of bronze zodiacal water spouts designed by Castiglione disappeared from Beijing, only to re-appear publicly at auction during the last 30 years. Ai Weiwei has replicated the set, both in bronze and gilt bronze, questioning its Chinese pedigree and, more broadly, whether objects commissioned by an occupying power can be regarded as national treasures, an issue especially relevant to China since large parts of the country were under foreign rule for almost a third of its imperial history. Castiglione is now regarded in China and Taiwan as a highly significant figure in Chinese painting history.
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43rd Session of World Heritage Committee; Baku, 30 June-10 July 2019
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Interest Group on International Law of Culture at the 15th ESIL Annual Conference; Athens, 12-14 September 2019
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The review of: Amy Strecker, Landscape Protection in International Law; Oxford University Press, Oxford 2018, pp. 240, ISBN 978-0-198-82624-8
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The review of: Magdalena Marcinkowska and Katarzyna Zalasińska (eds.), The Challenges of World Heritage Recovery; National Heritage Board of Poland, Warsaw 2019, 369 pp., ISBN 987-83-66160-36-1
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The present study of The Psalms of David emphasizes the historical, bibliographical, artistic, and structural examination of the book, describes the preliminary studies undertaken for the conservation of The Psalms of David and the presentation of this Victorian design binding at the Beauty and the Book: 19th and 20th Century Folios on Decorative Arts exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago. The article is focusing on the history of the book from the Victorian era to the present days, and provides commentaries on the circumstances surrounding the book entry into the museum collections, examines the bookbinding design and structure, and explores materials and patents for the manufacture of this innovative relievo papier-mâché album-style binding.
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The article is dedicated to the reconstruction and reinterpretation of pre-Columbian heritage by Mexican museums, with a special focus on the Maya civilization which is a permanent feature of the Mexican imagery and an object of artistic fascination. Characteristic of the history of the Yucatan, it is subject to symbolic manipulation and subordinated to the national culture. This is accompanied by the processes of its banalization, folklorization and commercialization which are facilitated by new audiovisual forms. References to the heritage are selective and the images are transformed and adjusted in order to develop apprehensible artistic products for the general public.
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Heritage tourism destinations attract a heterogeneous number of players each with significantly different interests at the expense of residents. Therefore, this study assesses impacts and patronage of heritage tourism sites on the host communities in Osun State, Nigeria. Data for this study was derived through questionnaire administration. Random sampling without replacement was used to select eleven (11) heritage tourism sites in which two hundred and twenty-two (222) questionnaires were administered to the residents. The findings revealed that propelling factors of an influx of tourists to heritage sites are socio-economic (33.06%), service (17.75%), mobility (12.77%) and management (10.78%), and the possible outcomes are both positive and negative, which were further categorized into social, economic and environmental impacts. The implications of this study revealed the prominence of social drawbacks such as an increase in prostitution, traffic congestion, and noise pollution, among others, in the areas accommodating heritage tourism sites, hence working out appropriate policies for proper guidance concerning heritage tourism sites, tourists and residents is highly recommended.
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This paper examines the case of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo to explore the entanglements of the somewhat contradictory concept of a history museum as a research institution that aims to educate visitors about the past, as opposed to an artistic performativity that provides sensory engagement and a reliving of past moments. Drawing on the performative paradigm, it focuses on the ways in which a past is made into a present to facilitate experience and bodily re-enactments. The History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina has recently embraced new museology approaches that stem from the performative turn. For providing a platform where people can meet and talk about the past, museums have been viewed as promising places for dealing with difficult memories. Artistic performativity has also been valued for opening ways to reconciliation. However, given historical exhibitions’ and artistic installations’ different approaches towards the past, this paper seeks to address some questions that arise from performing difficult pasts in a museum. How do narratives conveyed by exhibitions and artworks interact and influence the overall narratives offered by museums?
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This text looks into an interesting Bulgarian technical publication, namely the first Bulgarian book on radio-frequency engineering, A Wireless Telegraph (1905) by electronic engineer Boris Leshtov. Written both accessibly and for the masses, yet demonstrating detail and a comprehensiveness, this book acquainted the reader with the emergent world of a new means of communication, the radio. From a philological perspective, it serves as an intriguing testament to the introduction of hitherto unfamiliar technical terms into Bulgarian at the dawn of the 20th century. This text offers a detailed account of the ways in which new lexemes were introduced and of the apt neologisms coined by the book’s author. The significance of the first Bulgarian book on radio-frequency engineering is assessed.
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