Theft of the Divine: Seven Goddesses, a Temple Heist, and Smuggling in Midcentury America

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

Research and writing leading to a book about art and antiquities collecting by museums in the 1960s and current approaches to museum repatriation.

A journalist, narrative nonfiction writer, and lyric essayist, I use the case study of a 1962 temple theft to explore the cultural landscape in the US and India that led to a flourishing trade in antiquities that implicated America's top museums and most esteemed art collectors. My project joins hard-nosed reporting, reflection, travel writing, readings in art and philosophy, and a probing mindset about the future of museums. Central to my inquiry is the question, Who owns objects? With subject matter ranging from the esoteric to the political to an embrace of 1960s Bollywood and popular culture, I take a long view on the news of the moment. Today's repatriation fever reproduces a history in which fiefdoms fought for objects according to conflicting notions of those objects' uses and meanings. Place, scene, history, and ideas help me circle toward a new understanding of what happened, why, and why we must interrogate this past in order to arrive at a framework for the future.

StatusNot started
Effective start/end date5/1/254/30/26

Funding

  • National Endowment for the Humanities: $60,000.00

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