The Market for Mesoamerica: Reflections on the Sale of Pre-Columbian Antiquities

Discussions on the illicit trafficking of precolonial cultural heritage items

Pre-Columbian artifacts are among the most popular items on the international antiquities market, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor these items as public, private, and digital sales proliferate. This timely volume explores past, current, and future policies and trends concerning the sales and illicit movement of artifacts from Mesoamerica to museums and private collections.

Informed by the fields of anthropology, economics, law, and criminology, contributors critically analyze practices of research and collecting in Central American countries. They assess the circulation of looted and forged artifacts on the art market and in museums and examine government and institutional policies aimed at fighting trafficking. They also ask if and how scholars can use materials removed from their context to interpret the past.

The theft of cultural heritage items from their places of origin is a topic of intense contemporary discussion, and The Market for Mesoamerica updates our knowledge of this issue by presenting undocumented and illicit antiquities within a regional and global context. Through discussion of transparency, accountability, and ethical practice, this volume ultimately considers how antiquities can be protected and studied through effective policy and professional practice.

Author: Cara G. Tremain
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 08/13/2019
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9780813056449

About the Author

Cara G. Tremain is an instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Langara College. Donna Yates is associate professor of criminology in the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

Contributors: Cara G. Tremain Donna Yates Martin Berger Allison Davis James Doyle Rosemary Joyce Nancy L. Kelker Guido Krempel Christina Luke Sofia Paredes Maury Adam Sellen