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Pastimes : Through A Glass Darkly (No Rants)
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To: paul_philp who wrote (106)4/15/2003 12:07:12 PM
From: Ilaine  Read Replies (1) of 143
 
Thinking about the looted museums in Iraq stirred up some thoughts I've been having about art.

We visit museums very often, probably a couple of times a month.

I love to go to museums, but at the same time I find them oppressive, sort of like going to a zoo.

The artifacts were not created to be seen in a museum, they were created to be used or displayed in a natural setting by the people who owned them.

Taken out of their context there is a deadness to them.

Row after row after row of great master paintings becomes overwhelming. The senses are surfeited. It is impossible to really appreciate them.

Same with anything - archeological treasures, superb natural specimins.

Taking the things out of the museum setting and putting them back into private homes doesn't seem like a real tragedy to me.

I admit that I've seen quite a few specimins of the type of artifacts that were stolen, because rich western collectors have made off with them and then upon their deaths donated them to western museums.

They'll turn up eventually.

Not at all "destruction," just sort of moving around.

So, for a while, impoverished Iraqi families have the pleasure of seeing priceless items in the privacy of their own home. Not a tragedy at all.

They're just things. Not one of them worth more than the life of a human being.

Summarily executing looters -- that would be a tragedy.
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