RULING CULTURE: TOMB ROBBERS, STATE POWER, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ITALIAN ANTIQUITIES by Fiona Anne Rose Greenland A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Geneviève Zubrzycki, chair Professor Fatma Müge Göçek Assistant Professor Robert S. Jansen Professor Nicola Terrenato Acknowledgments This project was made possible by generous gifts of time, money, advice, and moral support from colleagues, institutions, friends, and family. The Social Science Research Council (USA) funded my fieldwork in Italy and England in 2011-2012. Additional, equally important fieldwork time was supported by the International Institute (2013) and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, both at the University of Michigan (2010, 2012); and by the University of Michigan’s Department of Sociology (2010, 2013). Financial support covered travel and accommodation; institutional support facilitated my thinking, writing, and accessing data. In Oxford, the Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society in the Department of Anthropology (Oxford University) hosted me as a Visiting Fellow in Autumn 2012, welcoming me into the family and giving me space to share my research, conduct interviews, and access the magisterial holdings of the Bodleian Library. In Rome, the British School (BSR) kindly housed and splendidly fed me in summer 2013. Many libraries and institutions helped me to find invaluable archival material and secondary literature. For their patient help, I thank the archivists and librarians at the Archivio di Stato di Roma, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma (BNCR), the Istituto Archeologico Germanico (Rome), the American Academy in Rome, the Library of the Camera dei Deputati (Rome), and the British School at Rome. In Ann Arbor, the Italian studies librarian at the Hatcher Graduate Library, Beau Case, helped me procure Italian-language books that were hard to find outside of Italy. ii In the course of this project I spent time at three excavation sites in Italy. My time in the trenches was invaluable to the formation of my thinking about the dissertation project and the complexities of archaeological knowledge and the meaning of antiquities. For this, I thank the directors and team members of the digs at Gabii (Lazio), Poggio Civitate (Siena), and Coriglia/Orvieto (Umbria). I am fortunate to have the best colleagues in the world. At the University of Michigan, fellow graduate students provided ideas, helpful feedback, inspiration, and also laughter, commiseration, and warm companionship. I give thanks to Dan Hirschman, Elizabeth Armstrong, José Bortoluci, Jamie Budnick, Patricia Chen, Amy Cooter, Mariana Craciun, Mathieu Desan, Meagan Elliott, Camilo Leslie, Zakiya Luna, Atef Said, Claire Whitlinger, Elizabeth Young, and Beatriz Zengotitabengoa for friendship and unstinting support. I have incurred debts of gratitude to many scholars at several institutions. Geneviève Zubrzycki supervised my dissertation and did so much more. Her incisive observations profoundly influenced my approach to the study of culture and nationalism, while her precise and supportive criticism on the dissertation, from embryonic proposal to finished product, greatly enhanced its quality and nuance. Müge Göçek read chapters, brainstormed with me, and encouraged me over endless cups of tea and plates of Turkish sweets. Rob Jansen pushed me to think more carefully and precisely about theories of states and culture, and it was through our long discussions that I embraced my capacity to generate new social theory. Nic Terrenato sparked my interest in the project in the first place, encouraging me to dig with his team at Gabii and discussing the complexities of this sphere through many office hours visits back in Ann Arbor. Through stimulating conversations and the Michigan Social Theory seminar, George Steinmetz helped me see the interrelations of power and identity in the field of antiquities. Amir iii Baghdadchi read drafts and commented perceptively, always finding a twist or a puzzle in my data and encouraging me to think anew and, above all, to write with clarity and decisiveness. Anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, classicists, historians, and sociologists on two continents provided feedback on chapters, or offered insights into my project that greatly helped my analysis. Jeffrey Alexander, Isabella Clough Marinaro, Bruno Currie, Mira Debs, Jas Elsner, Lene Faust, Dario Gaggio, Peter Galison, Elaine Gazda, Patty Gerstenblith, Tracey Heatherington, Michael Herzfeld, Ian Hodder, Caroline Jones, Krishan Kumar, Richard Lachmann, Milena Melfi, Alfonso Moreno, Davide Orsini, and Anthony Tuck: thank you, all of you, for your feedback, questions, and inspiration. All errors are my responsibility. My family members deserve gold medals, all of them, for their love and support. As though cheering me on through the first doctoral degree wasn’t enough, they enthusiastically cheered me on through the second. I regret that my grandparents died before I completed this dissertation. May their memory be eternal. Will, Alasdair, and Abigail: I dedicate this work to you. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ ii List of Images ................................................................................................................ vi List of Appendices ........................................................................................................ vii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... viii Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................1 2. Historical antecedents and the path to nationalized culture in Italy ............................. 40 3. Patria and Repatriation: The Myth of Family in Cultural Power ................................ 88 4. The Consolidation of Expertise: Knowing the Nation through Antiquities ............... 136 5. Tomb Robbers and the Margins of National Culture ................................................ 184 6. Conclusion............................................................................................................... 222 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 237 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 251 v List of Images IMAGE 1. Unveiling the Euphronios krater at the Ministry of Culture 247 2. Officers from the Syracuse office of the Tutela del Patrimonio 247 3. Press conference announcing the success of “Operazione Tomb Raiders” 248 4. Two carabinieri inspect the archaeological site of Rocca di Entella (Sicily) 249 5. Cover image from Gustavo Strafforello’s La Patria: Geografia dell’Italia 250 vi List of Appendices APPENDIX A. Methodology: Data Collection and Analytical Strategies 237 B. Table of Nationalization Legislation 244 C. Images 245 vii List of Abbreviations ACS Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Central State Archives) Camera Camera dei Deputati (Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament) Codice Codice dei Beni Culturali e del paesaggio (Legal Code for Cultural Treasures and Landscape, maintained by MiBAC) DC Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democrats) DLgs Decreto legislativo (Legal decree, the formal system of referring to specific Italian laws) MiBAC Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Ministry for Cultural Resources and Activities) NTPA Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (forerunner to the TPC) TPC Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (Police Command Unit for the Protection of Cultural Patrimony); referred to colloquially as the Art Squad viii Abstract Ancient artifacts and ruins are evocative symbols of modern Italy. Long subject to contingent valuations, ranging from hostility and active destruction to romanticization and ardent protection, antiquities are now fiercely contested resources for state power, scientific expertise, and cultural identity. Employing ethnographic, historical, material, and institutional methods, this dissertation shows how these domains of authority come together to constitute what I call cultural power. Beginning with the rediscovery of Pompeii in the late 18th century and the heated turf wars and intellectual disputes that it generated, I trace the historical process that led, in 1909, to the nationalization of all legally defined antiquities in or from the Italian soil. After the collapse of the Napoleonic regime in Italy in 1814, elected officials, scholars, and connoisseurs led civic- level efforts to repatriate artworks stolen by the French and to protect the artworks and monuments left intact. The difesa dell’arte movement began as a traditional guardianship exercise and ended, some six decades later, as a revolutionary program for asserting public ownership over ancient treasures. That revolutionary program is now widely admired and copied. The nationalization of Italian antiquities offered a blueprint for other nation-states which sought to assert control over the circulation of ancient objects and ruins – key