Righting Historic Wrongs
News from GSAS: Mireille Lee, M.A. 鈥94, Ph.D. 鈥99, establishes a foundation to help identify looted artifacts
Mireille Lee was a master鈥檚 student studying Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in 1993 when her professor, James Wright, tipped authorities off about a collection of Mycenaean gold and jewelry that he believed to have been looted from Aidonia, Greece.
For Lee, the headline-making case of the Aidonia treasure underscored what she was learning at Bryn Mawr about the ethics of archaeology and 鈥渢he dangers of the antiquities market.鈥 Even after a 1970 UNESCO agreement meant to limit the movement of cultural property across borders without the express permission of the source country, a black market of stolen artifacts persisted.
It wasn鈥檛 the last time Lee would encounter these issues as a young academic and researcher. 鈥淚 got to a point in my own research where I had to deal with provenance issues and realized that I didn鈥檛 really know how to go about doing it,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 realized what a tremendous need there was for creating some mechanism whereby students could be trained to do this kind of work.鈥
In 2022, Lee established the Foundation for Ethical Stewardship of Cultural Heritage (FESCH). The foundation's inaugural project is to create a protocol for cataloging items in museum and academic collections and make that data available in an open-source database where items and their origins can be easily researched.
鈥淚 realized what a tremendous need there was for creating some mechanism whereby students could be trained to do this kind of work.鈥
Provenance has been a growing concern at major museums in recent years. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution have all discovered looted items in their collections. Sometimes, source countries have demanded the return of their artifacts. It鈥檚 created a 鈥渟nowball effect,鈥 Lee says, helping to draw attention to cultural heritage.
鈥淲here they are creating jobs in museums right now is within the realm of provenance research,鈥 she says.
However, researching provenance can be difficult. There are few online resources. Travel is frequently required. 鈥淓veryone I know who does this work has had to learn on the job, and there really is no umbrella organization to help them navigate this whole process,鈥 Lee says. 鈥淧eople have been sharing information via Twitter.鈥
In January, FESCH received a $349,315 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to officially launch the Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance, or MAPRA, a pilot program with four universities to establish standard nomenclature and protocols for provenance research and begin creating a database.
Sarah Kielt Costello, M.A. 鈥97 serves on the advisory council for MAPRA. Because of her experience in Bryn Mawr鈥檚 archaeology program and its long-standing commitment to ethics, Costello says, it was especially gratifying to work on the project with another alum.
鈥淭he stories of objects don鈥檛 only reside in the distant past,鈥 Costello says. 鈥淥ur recent and current interactions with them, how they changed hands, how they have been displayed鈥攖hese are all part of the fascinating story that objects can tell. Creating resources to help students learn how to do provenance research opens up the pathway to learning those stories.鈥
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Published on: 05/30/2024