Curator fired amidst provenance concerns over Greek antiquities: US

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News Websites
21 Sep 2023 14:41

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in St. Petersburg, Florida, is in the midst of a dispute regarding the handling of artifacts lacking complete origin records, which resulted in the removal of curator Michael Bennett from his position.

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Wikimedia)

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in St. Petersburg, Florida, is embroiled in a controversy centered on how museums should handle artifacts with incomplete records of their origins.

This issue led to the dismissal of curator Michael Bennett from his position. His termination followed concerns raised by staff at another institution regarding the provenance of items featured in "From Chaos to Order: Greek Geometric Art from the Sol Rabin Collection," a traveling exhibition of Greek antiquities curated by Bennett, as detailed by The New York Times.

The exhibition, featuring artworks from ancient Greece's Geometric period (approximately 900 BCE to 700 BCE), was originally scheduled to proceed to the Denver Art Museum after being displayed at the Rollins Museum of Art near Orlando and the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina.

However, the tour was abruptly stopped by Denver Art Museum staff due to apprehensions about certain artifacts lacking thorough and credible records of their origins. Among the displayed objects, all borrowed from collector Sol Rabin, were several that had been acquired from dealers with known connections to stolen artifacts.

Denver Art Museum embroiled in controversy

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) staff may have been particularly cautious about displaying artifacts without well-documented origins, possibly due to their involvement in an ongoing controversy regarding their collection of antiquities from Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia. Recently, the museum decided to remove four objects from its collection that had ties to antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford and return them to Cambodia.

DAM employees might have been especially careful about exhibiting artifacts without clear, documented histories because of their connection to an ongoing dispute related to the museum's acquisition of antiquities from Southeast Asian nations such as Cambodia. The museum recently took action to deaccession and return four objects from its collection, which were linked to the antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, back to Cambodia.

After this incident, Bennett was placed on leave, and a month later, he was terminated by the MFA. While the museum has not publicly disclosed the specific reason for his dismissal, a letter obtained by The New York Times from the museum's attorney to Bennett's attorney mentioned that, “If cause were required to terminate Dr. Bennett’s employment, MFA would have more than sufficient grounds to do so, as Dr. Bennett well knows.”

In a prior role at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Bennett had encountered a provenance controversy. His contentious acquisition of a bronze statue of Apollo from private sources with limited documentation attracted attention and scrutiny back in 2013.