Publicly ethical, privately unethical

This chapter aims to address major ethical issues related to the antiquities collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). The chapter reveals how the museum violated several of the ethical standards and laws, both before and (mainly) after 1970, although, in theory, this museum expressed its commitment to the principles of the International Committee of Museums’ (ICOM) codes of ethics. I develop my argument in three parts. First, I focus on the development of the relevant articles from the ICOM Code of Ethics. I explain how the Code works, and I scrutinise the articles of the Code regarding ‘Acquisition Collections’, ‘Documentation of Collections’, ‘Shared Expertise’, ‘Display of Unprovenanced Material’, ‘Restitution of Cultural Property’, ‘National and Local Legislation’, and ‘The Illicit Market’. I employ a historical approach comparing the progress and advancement of ethical guidance that ICOM’s Code of Ethics has offered from 1986 to 2004. Second, I discuss three case studies (such as the treasure of Morgantina, Sicily) of illicit antiquities from the MET’s collection. In each case, the MET initially denied the allegations for exhibiting illicit antiquities, but at the end, the museum agreed to the repatriation of these objects, acknowledging, implicitly, the violation of ethical and legal standards. In this part, I show which parts of the Code the MET failed to follow. Third, I discuss the recent response by the MET to the so-called ‘Changing Landscape of Cultural Property’ and I show that their rhetoric and actions to respond to this ‘Changing Landscape’ are not compatible with ethics; it is merely an act of compliance.