Oscar White Muscarella
Encyclopedia
Oscar White Muscarella (b. 1931 in New York
) is a US archaeologist and former curator
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. His specialty is the antique art and archeology of the Near East. Muscarella is an untiring opponent of robbery excavations, and some regard him as the "conscience of the industry". Dr. Muscarella received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1965.
(see: The lie became great. The forgery of ancient near eastern cultures. 2000).
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) is a US archaeologist and former curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. His specialty is the antique art and archeology of the Near East. Muscarella is an untiring opponent of robbery excavations, and some regard him as the "conscience of the industry". Dr. Muscarella received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1965.
Fight against the antique trade
Muscarella sees rich collectors and museums as greatly harming archeology. By offering such great sums for important artifacts, they create great incentives for people to hastily excavate sites in order to find the most marketable artifacts. Since these people have no incentive to take the care that professional archaeologists would, they may end up destroying a great many of the site's artifacts. Large parts of culture history, it is claimed, have been destroyed in this manner.Forgeries
Muscarella has gained some notoriety in his attempts to unmask certain important artifacts as forgeriesForgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
(see: The lie became great. The forgery of ancient near eastern cultures. 2000).
Interviews
- Suzan Mazur: "Antiquities Whistleblower Oscar White Muscarella. The Whistleblower & The Politics if The Met's Euphronios Purchase: A talk With Oscar White Muscarella.". In: ScoopScoop (news website)Scoop.co.nz is a New Zealand internet news site with a readership of 25,000 unique visitors a day, delivering 2,000,000 pages of information per month....
, 25 December 2005. - Stefan Koldehoff: "Museums destroy the history of our earth". In: Welt am SonntagWelt am SonntagWelt am Sonntag is a German national Sunday newspaper published by Axel Springer AG, and established in 1948. Its head office is in Berlin, and it has local editions for Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf....
, 29 January 2006 (German)
External links
- Joerg Haentzschel: "Archaeology of the bulldozer. Collectors and museums in the west finance the destruction that antique world." In: Süddeutsche ZeitungSüddeutsche ZeitungThe Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...
, Wednesday, 3 September 2003, S. 13, No. 202, yr. 59 (German) - "No Ransom - part II", ScoopScoop (news website)Scoop.co.nz is a New Zealand internet news site with a readership of 25,000 unique visitors a day, delivering 2,000,000 pages of information per month....
, 9 February 2006, also as audio file