HART Seminar: “Contested Cultural Heritage: Ethics, Morality and the Law in the Context of Museums & the Islamic Art Market”, Richard Piran McClary, 5.30PM October 23 2024 (EN)

An evening lecture will be given by Professor Richard Piran McClary (York University).
GE Points will be given.

Date: 23 October 2024, Wednesday
Time: 17.30
Venue: Auditorium C-Block

Title: Contested Cultural Heritage: Ethics, Morality and the Law in the Context of Museums & the Islamic Art Market

Abstract: This lecture examines the historical transfer of elements of material culture, including ceramics and architectural elements, from the eastern Iranian world to Europe and North America, as well as more recent incidents of looted material entering museums and the art market, and the ways in which these objects are displayed, traded and, on occasion, returned to their country of origin.

There are four main case studies, two sites in Iran and two types of material from a site in Afghanistan, and these include lustre tiles taken in the nineteenth century, as well as lustre ceramic vessels and marble dado panels looted from Afghan museums since 1979. The various legal, ethical and moral issues around the continued trade and display of this material is examined, in order to highlight both the nature and the complexity of the subject, and the interconnections between archaeology, museums and the art market.
Bio: Dr Richard Piran McClary is a senior lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of York. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. He has lectured extensively on a range of subjects related to medieval Islamic art and architecture around the world, and has conducted fieldwork in India, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and across the Middle East. He held a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh from 2015 to 2018, examining the surviving corpus of Qarakhanid architecture in Central Asia. His first monograph, entitled Rum Seljuq Architecture 1170-1220. The Patronage of Sultans was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2017, and his second, Medieval Monuments of Central Asia. Qarakhanid Architecture of the 11th and 12th Centuries, also with EUP, came out in 2020. His most recent monograph, Mina’i Ware, was published in 2024. He has co-edited a volume with Andrew Peacock, entitled Turkish History and Culture in India. Identity, Art and Transregional Connections (Brill, 2020), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on the topic of medieval Islamic architecture and ceramics. He has published articles in Muqarnas, Iran, Anatolian Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and his latest monograph, on mina’i ware, is currently in press. He has served as a trustee and the Research Director for the British Institute of Persian Studies and is managing editor of the Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture.