542. Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case?

542.博物馆只是奖杯吗?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2023-05-11

52 分钟
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单集简介 ...

The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plunder was the norm. Now there’s a push to return these works to their rightful owners. Sounds simple, right? It's not. (Part 2 of “Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard.”)

单集文稿 ...

  • Last episode, we began with a simple question.

  • How do the artworks and artifacts that you see in a museum wind up in a museum?

  • For a long time, the entire art world didn't ask questions.

  • The Met got fooled by not probing deeply enough into the purported history that.

  • Was given to us.

  • Guess what?

  • My kids know it's looted.

  • The museum world is changing.

  • Museums are now returning dozens of objects every single year.

  • It's like Olympic games for restitution.

  • Even though technically we legally acquired these.

  • The origins of the acquisition was illegal, so therefore everything else was tainted as well.

  • Today on freakonomics radio, we will explore one dramatic case that isn't settled yet.

  • The disruption of the attack on the kingdom cannot be overemphasized.

  • Most important pieces went directly to the british museum.

  • They even took the bolts from the doors.

  • It turns out that stealing art can be relatively easy.

  • But giving it back, that's the hard part.

  • If the job is to purify yourself by getting rid of the art, yeah, put it in a pit, melt it.

  • The second episode in our series about returning art starts right now.