Review: A Seductive and Troubling Work Author(s): Ricardo J. Elia Review by: Ricardo J. Elia Source: Archaeology, Vol. 46, No. 1 (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1993), pp. 64, 66-69 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41766251 Accessed: 04-08-2016 15:14 UTC

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This content downloaded from 69.86.123.23 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:14:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Books

A Seductive and Troubling Work

Cycladic sculptures. In response, The Cycladic Spirit: Master- looters in the islands, eager to satis- pieces from the Nicholas P. fy the greed of collectors and muse- Goulandris Collection by Colin ums, undertook one of the most sys- Renfrew (with a chapter by Christos tematic episodes of archaeological Doumas ). 208 pages . New York : Harry pillaging ever as thousands of Cy- N. Abrams, in association with the cladic graves were vandalized in the N.E Goulandris Foundation , 1991. search for figurines. Predictably, the lust for Cycladic marbles, coupled During the third millennium b.c., small with a dwindling supply of unplun- communities of Early Bronze Age dered graves, spawned a major in- agriculturalists developed a distinc- dustry in counterfeit sculptures. tive culture in the group of rugged Workshops in places like Paris, Aegean islands known as the Cy- Athens, and Naxos (where sources clades. Like of actual Cy- their contempo- cladic marble raries in main- were at hand) land Greece, profitably flood- Crete, and Ana- ed the market tolia, Cycladic with fakes. This craftsmen fash- frenzy of loot- ioned imple- ing, faking, and ments of ob- unprincipled sidian, copper, purchase . has and bronze and placed approxi- made vessels of mately 1,600 fired clay. But objects identi- these islanders fied as Cycladic also created re- figurines into markable ob- private collec- jects out of local tions and mu- marble: bowls, seums through- out the world. 1 cylindrical con- S tainers, and es- For the vast ma- Demand for Cycladic figurines like this pecially human one in Athens9 National Museum has jority we know figurines. nothing about prompted manufacturing of fakes and In the nine- where they came the looting of sites. teenth century, from, what they when European travelers and anti- mean, and even if they are authentic. quarians first encountered these One of the largest and most strangely shaped Cycladic "idols," prominent private collections of Cy- they regarded them as primitive, cladic material was assembled dur- rude, and even ugly. Their abstract ing the 1960s by Dolly and Nicholas forms and the absence of naturalis- Goulandris and now constitutes the tic features offended the aesthetic Nicholas P. Goulandris Foundation- sensibilities of art historians weaned Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. on the Classical ideal of Greek All of the objects in the Goulandris sculpture. As recently as 1925, Collection Gus- were purchased either in tave Glotz, in his account of GreeceAegean or on the international art civilization, referred to rare Cycladic market; not a single specimen has figures such as the flautist and an archaeologicalthe provenience. The harpist as "monstrosities." Cycladic Spirit , written by the promi- But fashions in art change, nent and British archaeologist Colin during the 1950s and 1960s theRenfrew, art showcases this collection world acquired an appetite in for a lavishly illustrated publication

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This content downloaded from 69.86.123.23 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:14:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms that will surely be welcomed by art Renfrew next discusses several historians, collectors, and traffickers aspects of Cycladic art, including in antiquities. who made the figures and whether Renfrew has written many impor- individual sculptors can be identi- tant studies on various topics in Eu- fied; to what degree they were* origi- ropean prehistory. He has published nally painted; how the sculptors extensively on Cycladic archaeology seem to have followed certain rules and sculpture, including, in 1969, on proportions in carving the human what has become the standard styl- form; variations in the treatment of istic typology of Cycladic figures. His anatomy; and the monumental fig- association with the Goulandris Col- ures. Renfrew's final essays offer his lection dates back to the 1960s, appreciation of Cycladic sculpture in when, as he tells us, he was given the context of modern aesthetics free access to the "wonderful collec- and artistic taste: here Renfrew is tion" in the Athens apartment of at ease in a wide-ranging discussion Dolly Goulandris. Renfrew's rela- that includes Classical, Byzantine, tionship to this collection was per- and Renaissance art, African tribal sonal and intimate: he recalls figures, and the artistic expressions "creeping out from the adjoining of Picasso, Modigliani, and Brancusi. bedroom" during the night with There a are, however, several pit- flashlight for a private viewing falls of the facing the scholar who chooses collection, which was on display to study in looted artifacts. The basic the drawing room. problem can be briefly summarized. In The Cycladic Spirit, Renfrew Collectors cause looting by creating dons the cap of the art historian a market and demand for antiquities. offers a personal and aesthetic Looting, ap- in turn, causes forgçries, praisal of Cycladic figures. As since the forgeries can only reriiain subtitle of the book indicates, undetected these where there is a sub- are treated not as artifacts, stantialbut as corpus of antiquities with- masterpieces of art. To be sure, out part proper archaeological prove- of the book describes what is known nience. These two problems - loot- about Cycladic society and material ing and forgery - fundamentally culture, a topic that derives from corrupt the integrity of the field of archaeological research, much of it ancient art history. desperate salvage work carried out One might expect that these prob- at newly plundered sites. But The lems would merit the special Cycladic Spirit is essentially Ren- attention of scholars working with col- frew's personal appreciation of Cy- lections. Unfortunately, many art his- cladic sculpture ("there is, after all, torians choose to ignore the no other way," he says). corruptive effects of the illegal art In typically eloquent fashion Ren- market on their study. Their basic as- frew sets the stage by summarizing sumption seems to be that looters are our understanding of Cycladic cul- bad but collectors are good. Scholars ture. He describes the "canonical" who work with looted material regu- form of Cycladic figurine: usually larly a condemn looting, while in the standing nude female, arms folded same breath they laud the enthusi- across the stomach, the depiction asm of the collector who, directly or executed in a simplified, abstract indirectly, financed the looting. manner. Several stylistic varieties or Another assumption made by types of figures are illustrated. More those who study private collections difficult is trying to understand what is that forgeries are only purchased the figures meant in Cycladic soci- by other collectors. Each collector, of ety: Renfrew speculates that course,the is unwilling to believe that he monumental figures represented or she has been duped by a forger, deities, while the smaller ones might and few scholars have the courage to have served as votive offerings suggest in that the collection they are public or private cults. studying contains forgeries. This atti-

66 Archaeology

This content downloaded from 69.86.123.23 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:14:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms tude produces an absurd and impos- for keeping many Cycladic objects in both in and outside Greece. Renfrew sible situation, nowhere more keenly Greece and for making them avail- never acknowledges the likelihood illustrated than by Cycladic sculp- able to scholars and the public. "They that the Goulandrises' collecting ac- ture. Everyone admits that forgeries have," he says, "escaped the interna- tually promoted the looting of Cy- are rampant but few have been so tional art market." cladic sites. During the 1960s the identified. One Greek archaeologist To be sure, the foundation has es- couple must have been well-known told me he believed that as much as tablished a museum and has sup- in the islands as major buyers of Cy- 30 to 40 percent of ail known Cycladic ported Cycladic research. But cladic sculptures. Dolly Goulandris figurines are forgeries; the most dis- Renfrew's defense rings hollow: the herself says, in the foreword of the turbing thing about this statement is Goulandrises made their purchases first publication of the collection in not that it cannot be proved, but that from the international art market, 1968, "I found my own fascination it cannot be disproved. The reluctance of scholars to deal with the problems that are inherent in the study of private collections springs from the fact that the rela- tionship of scholar to collector is es- sentially that of client to patron or guest to host. The obligation owed to the collector - for hospitality, access, and sometimes financial support - tends to compromise the researcher's objectivity and corrupt his or her in- tellectual honesty. An added compli- cation is the fact that the scholar's publication of a collection inevitably serves to authenticate the collection and increase its market value. How then, does a serious scholar like Colin Renfrew deal with these problems in The Cycladic Spinti He clearly does not sidestep the problem of looting and its effects. In his intro- ductory chapter, Renfrew describes the unparalleled looting of Cycladic cemeteries and asserts: "The dam- age is irreparable, the loss incalcula- ble." He also addresses the question of whether archaeologists should avoid dealing with artifacts that lack provenience, but he rejects such a so- lution as "inappropriate," and states that we cannot afford to ignore the Cycladic sculptures because they "represent one of the great moments of human achievement." Renfrew is careful to avoid offend- ing his hosts: although he repeatedly points out how little is known because of the lack of archaeological evidence, he never suggests that the act of col- lecting might be directly responsible for the looting. Instead, he praises the "energy," "enthusiasm," and "ini- tiative" of Dolly Goulandris in as- sembling the collection. He also praises the Goulandris Foundation

January/February 1993 67

This content downloaded from 69.86.123.23 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:14:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms in asking the villagers on the islands assumptions must be made explicit to show me antiquities and ruins...," and all evidence carefully evaluated, and she states how she and her hus- here simply ignores the question band "concentrated our efforts in and presumes that all the objects in collecting" Cycladic figurines. Ren- the Goulandris Collection are au- frew asks the reader to think of the thentic. In fact, Renfrew touches formation of the Goulandris Collec- upon the issue just once in the book, tion as "rescuing" Cycladic figurines when he suggests that a particular from the international art market: sculpture in a Berlin museum is a more likely, looters plundered Cy- fake; there he mentions the "wide- cladic graves with the specific inten- spread existence of modern fakes" tion of selling their booty to the of Cycladic figures. Goulandrises. One of the most troubling aspects One can only guess at the cost of of the study of Cycladic sculpture is forming the Goulandris Collection that, because the figurines appeal so in terms of archaeological sites de- much to modern aesthetic sensibili- stroyed and information lost. Ren- ties, their ancient context hardly frew notes that less than one tenth seems to matter. In fact, many art of all excavated Cycladic burials con- historians and collectors seem to tained marble figures: if we assume, prefer to contemplate the abstract hypothetically, that a grave will con- Cycladic figurines unencumbered by tain no more than one figurine, then any concern for their original func- the 46 Cycladic figurines from the tion, as they might a work by Goulandris Collection illustrated in Modigliani or Brancusi. The fig- The Cycladic Spirit represent about urines seem, after all, so very mod- 460 destroyed graves. ern. Indeed, many are. The issue of forgeries remains un- For Dolly Goulandris, the appeal addressed by Renfrew. Forgeries are of the figurines lay in "their timeless mentioned by Christos Doumas -forms and mysterious origins." The the Greek archaeologist who first mystery, of course, is largely a con- published the Goulandris Collec- sequence of the clandestine and il- tion - in a chapter contributed to legal way the objects were obtained. the present work on the history of This viewpoint is rather typical; for archaeological investigations of Cy- example, a curator at the Museum cladic culture. Doumas explains how of Fine Arts in Houston, where the "a veritable industry producing Goulandris Collection was exhib- fakes" developed when the voracious ited in 1981-1982, praised the demand of museums and collectors "beauty of their timeless forms," outstripped the supply of available which makes them "prized today for Cycladic figures. Entire collections aesthetic qualities that speak to us were built up almost entirely of across the ages." Their original fakes, leading Doumas to wonder if functions, and the ancient culture the forgeries were not some sort of that produced them, have become "divine retribution." irrelevant, or worse, "mysterious," But Doumas, who, like Renfrew, a tag that actually enhances their owes a debt of gratitude to the marketability. Goulandrises for being allowed to Even Renfrew eventually suc- publish their collection, never men- cumbs to this modernist perspective. tions what troubles this reader: Renfrew the archaeologist struggles Since a flood of fakes was infiltrat- to understand what place these fig- ing the art market when the urines might have had in Cycladic Goulandris Collection was being society. In the final analysis, however, formed, is it not possible, even likely, it is Renfrew the art critic who de- that some of the Goulandris mar- scribes the collection in the effusive bles are fakes? Unfortunately, Ren- language of the connoisseur, for frew, who elsewhere shows a keen whom context does not matter: mar- awareness that in archaeology all ble vessels are "elegant," "exquis-

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This content downloaded from 69.86.123.23 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:14:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ite," and "splendid," marble fig- urines are "masterpieces," "beauti- ful," "delightful," "vivacious," a "tour de force." One can only won- der how they might have seemed to a Cycladic farmer: Magical? Fright- ful? Awesome? Holy? The Cycladic Spiňt is more than art criticism by Colin Renfrew; it is also a coffee-table book beautifully illus- trated with John Bigelow Taylor's photographs of artifacts and figurines. There is something both seductive and troubling in this format. The Cy- cladic figurines are photographed against a black background: one might be looking at a display case in a Madison Avenue art gallery, so com- pletely are these objects divorced from their context. And throughout the book are uncaptioned and tiny color scenes of Cycladic land- and seascapes; these evoke not so much a real sense of place but a mood. The overall impression of the illustrations is of "timeless" museum pieces with only the most distant connection to the land from which they were un- timely ripped. Colin Renfrew has missed an ex- cellent opportunity to educate col- lectors and art historians about the barbarity of collecting. How effec- tive it would have been to include in the book photographs of plundered sites and despoiled graves. The Cycladic Spirit is a disturbing book because the author, a promi- nent archaeologist, perpetuates an attitude that is sadly all too typical of the way art historians treat collec- tions of looted material. Those who have personal and professional ties to the art market tend to lose a fun- damental and priceless element of their objectivity and, in certain areas of inquiry, their critical acumen as scholars is diminished. This book, written for a non-specialist audi- ence, can only reinforce the notion that looting is something that just happens, while collecting is a noble and worthwhile pursuit. The truth is that collectors are the real looters. ■

Ricardo J. Elia is director of the Office of Public Archaeology at Boston University .

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